Maternal Interference
by Altiria-Aty
Summary: Rouge's son is going to be executed, and there is nothing she can do about it. Lily's daughter is fighting a war alone and has nothing to live for. Lily can't accept that so she goes hunting through the afterlife to find Holly some aid and ends up in front of Rouge. An agreement between them gives their children a chance. (Soul Mate AU, Ace/Fem!Harry)
1. Chapter 1

Rouge stood over her son, her only boy who'd never known her and grit her teeth in a fury. Her hair flared around her body twisting like snakeheads, yet there was no wind to move it. It acted through her emotions, which could not be contained.

Her baby boy, for years she'd been forced to watch abuse heaped upon him by the sheep of the world. The drunkard idiots who wouldn't know their ass from their face and frankly sometimes she couldn't even tell the difference with the shit they spewed.

For years she'd watched her son be told by ignorant bastards that he was worthless. That if he were ever discovered they'd keelhaul him, torture him, murder him. Her baby, her precious Ace was told again and again he was worth nothing.

So when he had the chance to prove he wasn't by capturing a traitor she'd been unsurprised he'd jumped at the opportunity. He'd thrown himself into a hopeless chase even as she soundlessly screamed that he didn't have to. Cried that his adoptive family would accept him even if he didn't. Grabbed straight through his arms as she told him and again they loved him and would never blame him for Teach's actions.

By the gods of the sea if only he could hear her, just once. She'd tell him how much she loved him, how much he was worth. How she could not be prouder of how kind he had turned out to be despite everything thrown at him. Her baby still loved, still protected, she was so so proud of him.

The non-existent wind around Rouge calmed. A hundred children dead because of the marines' foolish attempt to capture her son. She would be forever grateful for Roger's forethought into contacting Garp, for Roger sacrificing himself so his death could be a distraction; one she and Ace could use for achance to survive. Her only regret, while she lay on her death bed, was that she would not be able to see her son grow, that she could not protect him.

Soundless Rouge snarled in anger, it was always the marines. The marines then that caused her death, and now they had locked up her son like he was some sort of animal. Her son was going to be executed because of who his father was, for no other reason but that. They didn't care that he was a pirate who had committed minimal crimes, an occasional bit of looting and a few accidental deaths in battle had been the worst he'd done. Not that it mattered the marines… they would have done this even if Ace had followed Garp's words and had become a marine.

By the gods, Ace didn't deserve this. Her son had never hurt an innocent. He'd saved children, had purposely avoided civilians when the marines ignored them, had gone out of his way to save others when he could. He was a good boy. The marines, those cursed beings only cared about what his death would symbolize. All they cared about was Roger, and though Rouge loved Roger with all her heart, right now a part of her cursed how much of a public figure he'd ended up as. If Roger had been a regular pirate Ace would not be in this situation. Ace wouldn't be about to be executed before his adoptive family.

"Dammit," Rouge's nails bit into her hands, though they didn't bleed. The dead couldn't after all; there was no 'life-blood' left within her. She was nothing but a ghost unable to save her child. "Dammit, dammit, Dammit!" she swung on the place and punched a wall. Acted as if she could damage the blasted thing. She couldn't; it didn't even hurt, her hand passed straight through the wall. Another blatant slap in the face about her inability to change a thing.

"Excuse me?"

Rouge paid no attention to the voice, the woman that had spoken could not be talking to Rouge. After all, Rouge didn't exist, and the living could not see her.

"Miss?"

She scrunched her nose and tried to punch the wall again. She failed and snarled at it.

"Hey!" a hand tapped her shoulder.

Rouge was not ashamed to say she screamed and jumped a foot in the air. Swinging around Rouge attempting to punch at the 'thing' that touched her for the first time since her death. The woman who had done so yelped and quickly dodged backward with a shaky unpracticed movement. As if at one point she'd been used to dodging projectiles but had not been a physical fighter. Rouge instinctively cataloged this assuming the woman had been a ranged fighter and hadn't often been in involved in hand to hand combat. While a moment later Rouge had frozen up in her fighting stance because… someone had touched her.

The woman before her held up her arms defensively showing herself as unarmed. Which didn't mean much they were dead after all. Not to mention in her own life while Rouge had fought with pistols, she could still fight unarmed. 'Unarmed' meant very little to her.

The woman herself had deep burning red hair quite a few shades darker than her light pink - which she'd never liked until Roger complimented it. Rouge had personally always wanted her mothers blood red hair; she thought her odd pink was 'faded' and not worth much. Ironically the woman before her could have passed for Rouge's aunt before her untimely death; their hair was near about the same shade. It was the eye color that told Rouge this woman wasn't her aunt, this woman's eyes were an eerily glowing green and Rouge's aunts had been chocolate brown like her own, like Ace's.

On top of this, the woman's clothing was beyond strange. She appeared to be wearing pajama's of all things with deer on them. Rouge, of course, didn't blame the woman for her choice in clothing. Rouge herself had died in a hospital gown from her pregnancy which left her eternally wearing the soft pink material with her back-end exposed.

"Hullo," the woman greeted tentatively, "um, are you good?"

Rouge straightened herself and lowered her own hands in embarrassment. What was she doing in battle stance? She was dead, this woman couldn't hurt her. She was being ridiculous.

"I'm fine," she reported.

"Oh good," the woman lowered her hands in relief, "I was a bit worried I'd make a poor first example, and I really didn't want to do that you know? Especially since it's you. I don't interact with other dead people too much."

"Indeed," Rouge thought a bit bemused, "I haven't interacted with any dead people."

"No one?" the woman startled slightly, "well, that's not too surprising, I guess. Most people choose to go 'on' when Death presents the option."

Rouge inclined her head to that. She'd been given the same choice back when she'd first died. After dying she'd found herself in what she knew was the path into the Grand Line, the waterfall that moved up the red line to the unknown. Around it she'd been given a dozen ship options, Rouge had refused to take any of them. When faced with the prospect she'd turned back, she had a son to watch over, a baby that needed her.

"Personally I was at king's cross… ah, that's a train station." 'Water Seven?' Rouge wondered as Lily continued, "Death gave my husband and me several train options, but I wanted to watch my daughter grow up. So we went back to follow her," the woman's expression grew cold in a way Rouge was intimately familiar with, a mothers fury, "It's bloody well good that I did."

Rouge couldn't help but relax in the face of the familiar emotion. She made several jumps of logic thinking perhaps this woman's daughter was like her Ace. Suffering from the stupidity of others, from marines. "Is she in Impel Down as well?" she asked, glancing out of the cell walls behind the woman.

"No." The woman shook her head sending the red locks swinging, "No, she's… actually, that's a bit of a complicated explanation. Perhaps we should introduce ourselves first, yeah?"

"I suppose," there wasn't much else Rouge could do but watch her son life slip away as he remained chained up in a cell. A proper conversation to get her mind off his fate, one to vent to was something she was in desperate need of.

"Portgas D. Rouge, a pleasure." She held out her hand, and the woman quickly shook it.

"Lily Potter."

Rouge recovered her hand, feeling it tingle quite bizarrely. How strange it was to finally have sensation in her hands due to Lily's likewise dead state. Rouge had missed physical contact, a part of her quite wanted to tackle Lily into a comforting hug, if only to feel another person in her arms again. She resisted, barely.

"He's your son?" Lily asked looking at Ace with an openly curious expression. Rouge followed Lily's gaze to Ace who had bowed his head in an attempt at sleep. He'd allowed himself to fall limp hanging off the obsessive amount of chains keeping him still and weak. Rouge was glad he was resting, if only because Ace hadn't slept for a single minute since he'd been captured. He was protecting himself, not allowing anyone to sneak up on him, in that, he was showing his strength. Rogue didn't need to see it to know her boy was strong, he hadn't even blinked at what Teach and his crew had done. Nor had he during the 'bath' the marines gave him when he'd arrived at Impel Down; a hose-down that had nearly ripped Ace's skin off his bones due to the sheer force they'd used. Rouge had looked away, unable to watch that happen to her son.

"Yes, that's my Ace," Rouge smiled softly. He looked so peaceful in his sleep, Ace lost all the tension he carried while awake when he slept. It was an expression to this day Ace only did when away when Luffy had been around. For only with Luffy was Ace wholly unguarded. Though Whitebeard and his crew were coming close to earning the same.

"I've been hearing quite a bit about him," Lily mused not moving closer, "a bunch of celebrity nonsense for the most part. I didn't take it seriously, no more than I would listen to what they say about my daughter." Lily spun on her foot and asked curiously, "Is he a good man?"

"Is my pirate son a good man?" Rouge asked in amusement, "that's not something people typically ask."

"I'm not typical," Lily said with a light shrug then sobered, "I'm actually quite desperate."

Rouge arched a brow eying the stranger, why was Lily here? Rouge hadn't wondered yet, but she was wondering now. "I don't understand."

"Not a surprise, it's not normal, none of this is." Lily didn't look away from Ace, Rouge felt herself tensing up wondering if the woman was a threat. "I heard about him in passing, first from the papers. The world Government of your world spread them all over a week ago reporting they were going to execute him. But the funny thing was, I keep seeing people who aren't happy about that."

Rouge hummed unsurprised, and Lily seemed to latch onto her response eagerly.

"Do you mind if I tell you a bit of a story? About my daughter?"

"I don't see why not." The more Rouge knew about Lily and her reason for visiting, the better.

Lily, however, didn't start where Rouge expected her too. "Have you ever tried to use your energy?"

"Energy?" Rouge's lips pinched downward, "what energy?"

"Energy. As souls, as the dead, we gain a small amount of energy as time passes. My husband noticed it a year after we died, he was able to unlock the door to what my pathetic excuse of a sister gave my daughter for a bedroom."

"And what was that?"

Lily's teeth snapped together with an audible click: "A cupboard, they put her in a broom cupboard till she turned eleven years old."

Even Rouge felt the stirring of anger hearing that, picturing a baby with Lily's features trapped in such a place by her own family. Rouge knew some people existed who would do such a thing, but to hear it was Lily's own family that had done so. She couldn't fathom that. She knew if any of her crew had lived, or if any of Roger's crew knew the truth about Ace, they have protected him in a heartbeat. Rouge had often thought she should have let them know about him; if she had perhaps Ace would not be captured now. Or maybe he would have earlier, Roger's crew had been in no state to protect Ace from the world.

"My husband unlocked the door, and we managed to get some water and food to Holly."

"They starved her?" Rouge gasped, "your family starved her?!"

"More than that," Lily gave Rouge a pained look and forced herself to continue, "for the first few years of her life we used that energy to help Holly survive. To get her food and water, to heal her wounds. We thought, we hoped, that when she turned eleven things would get better, that someone would notice and do something. At least then she'd be in the public eye, and the people we called friends and family would do something anything."

Lily heaved an exhausted breath and tugged at her hair, "It wasn't until she turned eleven we realized what was happening. No one was going to fix it, my friends were all dead, and James' were blocked at every avenue. Her god-father was thrown into prison without a trial and the one man I thought would help her can't do anything but protect her in secret."

"I'm so sorry!" Rouge moved forward and wrapped her arms around Lily hugging her tightly. The woman looked like she needed it, and frankly Rouge was tired of denying her own desire. Lily accepted her comfort readily, and for a moment they stood together. Lily tapped Rouge's arm when she was ready to continue, and Rouge released her gently.

Rouge wondered if she had this energy Lily was speaking of. Her first instinct was to say she didn't, she'd never been able to touch anything, to help Ace at all. But no, no she had been able to do it once. Ace had been ten at the time, facing against a group of 'pirates' about to shoot Luffy. She'd pushed her king's haki into him, helped him use it to protect them both. Rouge had convinced herself later that Ace had done it alone. Even if she was aware that ten was far too young to use the king's haki, no matter how strong her son was. Not to mention Ace hadn't used it again since that time.

"This energy, it's haki?"

Lily made a curious noise. "What's haki?" then it was Rouge that was confused, how had Lily used haki without using haki, unless… her energy wasn't haki? Rouge quickly explained to Lily what haki was, giving her an overview of observation, armament, and conquerors haki and how each worked. Rouge and Roger had both possessed all three she told Lily.

"That makes sense," Lily mused pacing around the cell, "it works different for us, your soul uses haki in limited use, while mine uses magic."

"Magic?"

"Ah, I didn't mention that did I? I'm a witch." Rouge nodded accepting this like she had everything else. After all, she'd seen stranger things in her travels through the world. So Lily continued with her story. "When we realized nothing was going to happen to help her, I started to save my energy. I thought I'd need it for something big."

"Are you still saving the energy you collected?" Rouge wondered even as she wondered if perhaps she could use her haki to aid Ace somehow. When she'd been younger she'd used haki to break sea-stone chains on her crew, but Rouge had only done it once and she'd been dangerously weak afterward.

"I am! and it's the reason I'm here now."

"Well?" Rouge gave Lily a curious look, "explain away."

Lily didn't hesitate. "Much as happened since my daughter's eleventh birthday, on that day she was introduced to her heritage."

"Her magic," Rouge realized.

Lily inclined her head showing Rouge was correct, "She began her schooling to learn to become a proper witch, and she's so powerful," Lily preened with parental pride then sobered, "She was eleven when she was tricked into killing someone. Dumbledore, that bloody old fool told her it was 'my love' that saved her. Utter Nonsense. It was her magic that protected her, that always has protected her."

Rouge gave a wan smile as Lily corrected herself, "not to say I don't love her. But it wasn't love that kept her safe when we died. I spent a year developing a spell, a blood ritual, that allowed me to give my life for hers. So she could survive even the killing curse itself if she needed to… and she had needed to." Lily shook her head, "I had hoped I wouldn't have to use it, I wanted her to grow up with her parents, grow up safe. But that wasn't in the cards for us. Thankfully that day James stalled long enough when Voldemort attacked to allow me to perform the spell. It saved Holly's life killing Voldemort and if not for those Horcruxes it would have been permanent-"

"Lily. I'm a bit lost," Rouge told Lily stopping the flow of words.

Lily blushed, "Sorry, it's common knowledge in my world for the most part. Voldemort is a dark lord, a racist blood purist who is trying to destroy our home and kill all people who don't fit his 'standard' which is everyone. My husband and I were part of the resistance,"

"Like revolutionaries?" Rouge mused, "my aunt was one."

"Probably it's similar. When I fell pregnant a prophecy was given saying a child would be born to defeat the dark lord. Dumbledore, the man - our leader - who we had stupidly put our trust in, allowed the prophecy to be released. Voldemort found out about it and decided my daughter fit the criteria of the person who would defeat him according to what he'd heard. Voldemort decided she needed to die. In response to that James and I were placed under 'protective spells' and kept in the house. A spell that would keep us safe so long as someone we trusted kept the secret of our location and took it to his grave."

"I assume he did not," Rouge figured since Lily was in fact dead.

"The man we choose, Sirius, did until he and James got it in their fool heads that he was too obvious of a target. Admittedly it was because Sirius was constantly being targeted by his cousin since he was an obvious choice for us. So James and Sirius swapped our secret keeper to another of our friends, a man named Peter."

"Why is it you did not keep the secret yourself?"

"Dumbledore told us it could only be someone who did not live at the location itself. He might have lied, he might not have, I have no proof regardless. I only suspect it was a lie because the secret keeper can visit the safe-house without issue." Rouge gave her a judging look and Lily wilted. "I wanted to leave, to take Holly and leave the country. But James, he's so thick-headed, he wanted to fight, to defend our world. I should have followed my instincts,"

"So you were betrayed, and this Voldemort killed you," Rouge said, "then this Voldemort was temporarily 'killed' but managed to come back to life."

"Yes," Lily confirmed, "he used my daughters' blood as a base and brought himself back to life when she was fourteen years old. He started the war up again a short year later and Dumbledore, because of the prophecy, placed Holly as the leader of the war even though she has next to no training and is only seventeen years old."

"As old as Luffy. Why does she have no training? Surely if a prophecy existed, someone would ensure she could lead? Could fight?"

"Dumbledore," Lily snarled, "he claimed he wanted her to have a childhood."

"Even though she was abused for eleven years?" Rouge asked incredulously, "and killed someone at eleven?" Ace had done so at much younger than that - though she hadn't liked that he'd been blooded so very young. Not to mention as terrible as a guardian that Garp had been, he'd ensured Ace, Luffy, and Sabo could defend themselves. It seemed Lily's daughter had not been given the same chance.

"Holly has never been a child," Lily stated, "Dumbledore kept her in the dark, and we only recently found out why. I was spying on a man I used to call a friend a few months ago, and we learned from him that Holly has a Horcrux in her."

"You mentioned that before, what is it?"

"A soul fragment. Voldemort split his soul seven times to bind his soul to the living world ensuring he never dies. One of these pieces was placed within my daughter when James and I died. Dumbledore knew it, sensed it the moment he held her after our death. He's known for seventeen years and planned for it."

"How do you remove it?"

"Death."

Rouge's eyes slid closed. She understood now. "He ensured she could not defend herself so that she'd die in the battle."

"'For the greater good,'" Lily mocked.

"That poor child," Rouge whispered, "surely something can be done?"

"There is," Lily's green eyes burned in the darkness, "James and Sirius are attempting to use their energy to lead Holly to a set of three items. We believe if she has them in her possession and dies, the items will return her to life. They are known in some circles as a temporary block to death's embrace."

"That's wonderful," Rouge brightened up, relieved Lily's little girl had a chance. "But why tell me all this?"

"It comes back the energy I've collected and your son," Lily looked to Ace, "Right now Holly has no one, no reason to live. She has no hope for the future and has been trained and molded to not fight for her own life. Right now… right now she would walk to her death without hesitation. Dumbledore ensured she has nothing to fight for, nothing to linger for, to live for."

Rouge watched Lily move toward Rouge's son and felt herself shift sideways almost defensively. She sensed no malice, but someone so close to Ace while he slept made her nervous.

"I had enough for two particular spells of my own invention," Lily's teeth flashed, "I've had a lot of time to play around with charms in the last seventeen years. When you don't have to eat or sleep, or even breathe, you get a lot done."

"What spells?" Rouge demanded as Lily waggled her fingers. Before Rouge's eyes, a line appeared connected directly to Ace. It was bright emerald green, almost the same shade as Lily's eyes. Rouge watched as Ace began to glow a soft orange the same shade of the hat he wore so often. The orange bled into the green line coming from his middle, then the line darkened and zipped away into the darkness beyond them.

"Lily?" Rouge pressed, "what is that?" she wasn't afraid of it; instead, it made her feel so warm. Like seeing it made her feel immense hope.

"That," Lily said, "is a soul bond and it is directly connected to my daughter."

"A soul bond… a soul mate? They exist?" Rouge moved forward as the colors around them faded.

"They do," Lily confirmed, "It's easy to see them on the dead." Lily waved her hand again showing off her red glow that vanished racing away into a shade of gold. Rouge at the same time turned a soft pink attached to a deep red that reminded her of Roger.

"I created a spell that allowed me to see Holly's, difficult because she's alive, but I managed. Once I figured it out, I followed it here, to Ace."

Rouge shook her head despair forming in her chest, "Ace is going to be executed soon, Lily. He's trapped here, helpless. He's going to die."

Lily's smirk gained teeth sharp, vicious, "I have a plan for that as well. It's not exactly what I originally intended for my second spell. But I can make it work."

"Explain."

"I'm going to connect them mentally," Lily tapped her forehead, "Holly needs a reason to live, a reason to fight and Ace can give it to her. While Ace, it seems needs the same… and a prison break."

Rouge didn't dare to hope, didn't dare breathe even if she couldn't. She begged Lily with her eyes to say it, to tell her the words.

"I'll tweak the timing and applications; time will run slower for Ace than it will for Holly. He'll be present mentally at Holly's location. That way, they can get to know each other. Holly will get a reason to live, and if it all works out, she will waste no time in rescuing Ace. With magic, it shouldn't be at all difficult, she's broken into more challenging places already."

"They can save each other," Rouge said breathlessly.

"Yes."

"How?" Rouge grabbed Lily's shoulders desperately, pleadingly.

"Just repeat after me."


	2. Chapter 2

Holly pressed her hands to her forehead and rubbed little circles with them in a desperate attempt to calm her mind. Ever since her fourth year ended Holly had been plagued with headaches which constantly stemmed from Voldemort's presence. Most of the time, Holly felt the pain of his near-constant anger, a pain no potion, spell, or muggle drug would help cure. However, lately it was not anger she was feeling, though Holly might have actually preferred it. For from the moment Dumbledore died all Voldemort felt was pleasure, which was far far worse. True her head didn't hurt, but she was distinctly aware why it didn't, and couldn't ignore the feelings Voldemort plagued her with. There was something quite horrifying at watching her beloved mentor lowered into the ground and feeling joyful about it.

Reinforcing her occlumency barrier, Holly forced herself out of her chair and away from the research she was attempting to figure out. Hopelessness lit up her chest as she left the parchments behind; it dragged with the locket around her neck and the chain that was slicing into her neck from the way the Horcrux struggled against her.

It was true only because of how long Holly had been in Voldemort's head that she was resistant to the locket's whispers. She no longer heard it attempting to turn her and her emotions because such a thing had been a constant for her for years. But her best friends and family, Ron and Hermione did not have those benefits. Hermione had been mildly resistant because of how her mind worked; while Ron, had nothing. It was why his emotions had grown so explosive to the point that he snapped and ran from her. Holly didn't blame him, it was Voldemort's fault after all, and she had originally intended to do this quest alone. Which was why, when given a chance, she'd urged Hermione to chase after him.

Hermione had intended to return the moment she caught Ron, and she very well might have. But Holly, the instant she'd been left alone had collected her things and the tent, and then she'd left.

Holly was better off alone. Better off pulling away from Ron who had been suffering so badly and from Hermione who would be so broken once she learned the terrible truth.

She could still feel Dumbledore's blackened fingers enclosing around her upper arm. Could hear the sound of his sobs in her chest. Could feel the way her stomach had rebelled and the way her heart sank with the truth. As he drank down that potion, as he confessed to her the very worst of his sins- as he-

_"You need to tell her I'm sorry. Please, she has to know-"_

_"Who has to know sir?" _

_"Holly. Holly has to know." Her heart jumped, her fingers stilled, and Dumbledore took the opportunity to pull her in closer, to tell her the truth-_

_"She's… she's a Horcrux, she has to die, she's always had to die."_

Holly trudged out of the tent and stretched out her body while glancing at the night sky. She breathed in the crisp air - perhaps for the last time, any time now could be the last of what she'd do - and cracked her neck. Idly rubbing at the skin of her neck Holly felt the bruising there from the locket. She'd need some wood for the fire, and she'd definitely have to sneak into a muggle village again to buy some more food. Lowering her eyes, Holly turned and screamed.

There was a man inside her campsite. A man that had not been there when she'd left the tent, a man that couldn't possibly be there because Holly had spelled the area like Hermione had taught her. And yet, there he was. A young man with messy black hair, confused brown eyes, and - charming - freckles. He was shirtless and shoeless, with a pair of black pants and a bright orange belt. And he was staring at her with confusion and a small amount of hostility that had Holly reaching for her wand in the sleeve of her shirt.

"Who are you? How did you get here?" Holly demanded perhaps a touch too harshly. She couldn't quite resist the accusation in her voice because while the man technically looked like a muggle, it was more like a pure-blood attempting to pass off as a muggle to her. After all, who honestly wore that shade of orange without shoes in the forest!

The man's brow shot up as he glanced at her small form and Holly watched as his eyes scanned her, looking for her wand no doubt, which she was ready to pull in a moments notice. His eyes landed on her sleeve, and his brows returned to normal. "Portgus D. Ace, and… no clue." His expression did something annoyingly attractive, though hard to read. And then he rubbed the back of his head a bit sheepish and gave her a smile, meant to be polite no doubt, but wow. "Where am I exactly?" he wondered.

Holly's fingers lingered on her wand as she wondered if perhaps she was mistaken? Maybe he really was a muggle, and he had gotten himself lost in the forest? It didn't explain his lack of shoes and shirt, but it could happen. So in a test, she asked: "are you lost?"

The man snorted: "oh yeah, pretty lost." Ace gave their surroundings a look as if he couldn't fathom what he was seeing. "This is definitely not where I fell asleep."

Magic? She wondered. Unless he'd fallen unconscious and had woken up after she'd put down her shields. Admittedly she'd been too tired to check the entire area when she'd arrived. Still, there was a way she could be sure he was a muggle. "Got a GPS? Your cell-phone?"

"A what now?" he asked incredulously like she was speaking another language entirely. Which was enough for her.

Holly's wand snapped into her hand and was pointed at him in an instant. She watched him jerk, like he was about to put up his hands and punch her, or throw something, but froze when he saw her wand instead of another weapon. And by then, she'd already cast her spell. "Stupefy!" the red light of her curse shot out, and the man went to dodge, but few could avoid light itself, and the spell struck him right in the chest- and then went through him and out the other side.

The pair of them stared at his chest for a long pause. The distant sound of crickets and frogs sounded with a gust of wind. Then-

"You shot at me!"

"Well it's not like it hit you!"

He charged forward toward her moving fast, far faster than she expected anyone could move while stomping, and in a panic Holly hurled another spell. Then she shrieked darting backward as it too went right through him. Now the one too slow Holly yelped as his hand descended to grab her, and went right through her leaving them with another awkward silence.

"What the bloody hell?" Holly's mind raced as she tried to figure out how that happened.

"What the fu-?!" Ace yelled yanking his arm back, he rushed to clap his hands together and was relieved to learn he could in fact still touch himself, just nothing else it seemed. While Holly made a 'huh' sound and poked him with her wand, which went right through his head. "Don't!" he snapped swatting uselessly at it.

"Huh," she said again, "you could have told me you were a ghost, you know." She stashed her wand feeling secure once more, though a bit confused because he wasn't cold, but was instead warm to her skin when he'd passed through her. Which was definitely unique for a ghost.

"I'm not dead," he snapped, at least he wasn't yet.

"Ah, sorry." Holly made a prayer motion, "sorry for your loss, of you."

"I'm not dead! I'd remember if I was dead- wait a minute; no, that's not the point where the hell am I?"

"You are dead. Though I suppose it could be spell damage? Were you cursed?"

"Spell? What are you on?" he stared into her eyes, looking for signs of drugs, which caused her to swat uselessly at him. She would never- "look, lady, I fell asleep, and now I'm here."

"Then you could be dead. You could have died in your sleep," Holly reasoned

"I'm not dead," he insisted, "I'd know if I was-" he was fairly sure at least. "Where is here anyway and why'd you attack me!"

"You didn't know what a cell phone was," Holly said as if that was explanation enough. She turned away from him and started to look for wood like she'd originally intended. As a ghost, he wasn't a threat to her. Especially considering, since he was shirtless, Holly could see his arm and the lack of a dark mark; he was no death eater.

"And?" he followed behind her.

"Which means you aren't a Muggle or Muggle-born. Anyone who knew about Muggles would know what at least one of those things were."

"A Muggle what?"

"What rock have you been under." She waved her hand around them, "we're kind of at war, you know. Magic? 'You-know-who'" she air-quoted Voldemort's other name with heavy sarcasm in her voice.

"I don't."

Holly turned and looked at him, "Huh?"

"Don't know who," Ace clarified, "and I've never heard of any of this. You know your 'magic,' and 'cell phones' are likely just part of your island and culture, it's not from other islands. Especially if we're in the calm belt." He glared around him at the forest, "what is this island called?"

Now it was Holly looking at him like he'd gone a bit mad. "Calm belt?" she shook her head, "and 'island?' Really? I mean technically speaking it is an island but honestly."

Ace scoffed: "not the calm belt then? The new world? Does anyone leave this place? Go out to sea? You know- 'travel.'"

"Of course we do, but most people will just take a plane."

"A what?"

They stared each other down, then seemingly on the same page he abruptly said.

"Newscoo?"

"Newspaper?"

"Den-den-mushi?"

"What?!"

"Log pose?"

"London? Britain? Europe? Earth?!"

"Is that even common?"

"What the hell is common? I'm speaking English!"

Holly dumped her wood and marched toward Ace, this time she looked him up and down. She could see he was solid looking, unlike all ghosts she'd seen before, he was hot instead of cold. So what was he, why was he- shaking herself off Holly pulled out her wand again and flicked it. "Here look." She transfigured one of her wood logs into a world map and unrolled it so he could see. "We're here." She tapped the general location.

Ace scanned the map with wide eyes: "This is not where I'm from, at all. Where are the blues?"

"Yup, dead." She teased slightly since she no longer believed that was true. She was beginning to think he was from another world, which she knew was possible just very rare. Which of course meant she'd find him, that was just how the Potter luck worked.

"I'm not dead! Stop saying that," he snapped back at her. Yet. "Just, displaced-"

"And unable to touch anything."

"-well, how do I know you didn't do that with your weird voodoo magic!"

"Magic doesn't do that," she reported, "the spell I used is a stunning one, I was just going to freeze you then check your arm."

"My arm? Why?"

"For a dark mark… and you don't know what that is. My country is at war right now, the enemies forces have a mark on their arm. Right here." Holly tapped her tanned skin to him. Ace mimicked her turning his own arm to reveal it was clean as she'd already seen. "Yeah, and there's no way to cover or disguise it, which makes you not a death eater."

"Grand." Ace drawled.

"It is." She turned away again and flicked her wand, causing her pile of wood to follow behind her. Ace's eyes went a bit wide at the casual show of magic just as they had when she'd transfigured the map. Holly continued on collecting more pieces, Ace slid a step behind her grabbing at the floating wood, but like with everything else his palm went right through it.

"How'd you get here anyway?" Holly asked after a moment, "if you didn't die?"

"How should I know, I fell asleep and woke up here in front of you." He gave her a suspicious look, but she had already denied using magic to bring him here. Which she might not have, he could be dreaming. He checked by pinching his arm, it hurt, which likely mean not a dread. Which meant he could be stuck in a devil fruit's power.

"That's it? What were you doing before you slept? Piss off any fae?"

"Trust me, I haven't done anything in the past week to anger someone enough to send me to a new world. I haven't even been able to leave the… building, I was in." Not a lie technically speaking. Which was relatively accurate, he couldn't anger anyone while stuck alone in a cell.

"Okay well, you can just go back to where you came from now." Holly flapped her free hand at him. She didn't have time to deal with him and his problems, she had a war to win, Horcruxes to destroy, and her death to plan.

Ace made a face and wondered if he'd want to return in the first place. Able to touch anything or not, he already preferred where he was. Namely, in the forest and face to face with an attractive woman. He had no desire to return to Impel down. Ace doubted he'd be able to even if he could, after all, Ace had no idea how he'd ended up here, and if 'here' was even real.

"Why would I?" Ace said instead with a taunt in his voice, "I think I like it here."

Holly stopped at her tent and turned toward him, "well you aren't invited," she paused a moment, and sighed," damn, I was hoping that would work."

"What? Wait hey! I'm not a vampire or a ghost!"

"Oh sure you don't have cars, but you have vampires in your world," she sighed, "whatever. Look, I don't have the time deal with you. I have enough on my plate right now." She looked away from him, "you can stay in my camp, but I'm leaving tomorrow morning, and we'll never see each other again." She floated the wood into her tent, "so nice to meet you and all… goodbye forever." Holly pulled opened the tent flap and vanished into it without another word.

She liked him, he was fun to talk to, and she honestly wished she could help him get back to his world. But Holly… she couldn't form attachments, with anyone. But a secret part of her couldn't help but think, maybe it would be okay with Ace, he'd be gone to his world, and she'd be dead.

No, it was better this way.

From behind her, she heard Ace cry out cheekily: "I never caught your name!" As the tent flap closed. Holly hesitated a step inside, she glanced back and… she turned away.

* * *

Ace pressed his hand flush against the invisible wall he'd come in contact with. The wall went all the way around the girls camp without any breaks, and nothing Ace did would allow him through it. Taking a step back, Ace cupped his chin and eyed the forest looking for any sign that the wall was present, but he couldn't make it out. He knew it existed, knew it was trapping him, but he couldn't escape it.

After the girl had gone into her tent to rest, Ace had started experimenting. First, he'd attempted to use his flames, but nothing had happened. Then he'd tried touching things, but he went through effectively everything, though everything did not include the girl's tent which for some reason he could not enter at all. It grated because a vampire wouldn't be able to either.

Hand on his hip, Ace turned and marched back to the campsite she'd made and dropped to the floor outside her tent. It wasn't a great one he personally thought, minimal cover for her tent and the ground was littered in rocks and roots. He'd have been able to pick a better one that wouldn't allow any cooking fire to be seen from miles away. If she was at war like she claimed, then she was putting herself in danger with such a location. Though perhaps she didn't know better, he didn't exactly know anything about her. She could be a rich girl for all he knew, though she didn't act like it and the scars he'd seen on her forehead and arms said warrior. Not to mention how quickly she'd attacked him when she'd thought him a threat.

Still, the camp was better then impel down Ace knew, he wasn't cold, and he could move around freely unlike before. Not to mention he was no longer starving steadily, and he could not hear the ruthless aggravating comments from the guards and his fellow prisoners. But Ace didn't know why he was here, why he'd ended up stuck around the nameless girl. Still, it seemed he was expected to remain here, at least until something changed. Such as the moment his execution would occur, or until the girl woke up and left. Once she did, he'd find out if the wall around the campsite moved, if it's source was her, or something else.

So not feeling the slightest bit tired, but unable to escape, Ace settled in beside her tent to wait. At the very least he could act as a lookout for these 'death eater' people.

Or so he thought, he got bored in seconds. Watching the girls tent and the forest was as dull as watching the ocean on the Moby Dick, except now he didn't have the entertainment of his fire, a companion, or even the sea itself to gaze at. Utterly bored Ace reached down and on a whim tried to use his haki, black coated his fingers quickly, and he reached down grabbing for a rock- and picked it up.

"What?" he gaped as he lost control of his haki and the rock dropped straight through his fingers. Well, that was interesting. Using his haki, Ace stood and rushed for the wall hoping by coating himself in haki he could escape. He couldn't. So Ace returned to the campsite and tried his luck at the tent again, which was a failure. So he went about experimenting with other things unaware of two pairs of eyes glaring at him.

_"I don't like this, five minutes in and he's already trying to get into our Fawn's tent,"_

_"I'm sure it was harmless, Lils said he was a good man,"_

_"Yeah, but she got that from the word of his mother. You know you'd never say a bad thing about your kid,"_

_"That's because Holly is amazing," _

_"Yeah, see, proof," _

_"Shut up pads, let's just keep him out of the tent,"_

_"Permanently? What if they want to-"_

_"Oh, pads, what the hell? I do not want to think about that… but yes, even then."_

_"Good."_

* * *

Holly stopped dead when she left her tent and found Ace sitting in her camp still. He'd been busy over the night, creating a fire, hunting and cooking a few rabbits, and creating a few seats out of wood… how had he even done that without carving tools?!

Ace glanced her way and smirked holding a cooked rabbit in his hands. "Morning. So, I made a fire- shouldn't be seen by anyone where I put it. Figured you'd like to save some time, so I started a fire to cook breakfast," he rubbed his eyes "also a few deer passed by during the night, you might be able to catch them. No fawns so they're free game."

"Nope." Holly said and turned her back to him, she flicked her wand. The tent folded itself up and put itself away in her bag, then she stepped past him and toward the forest. "Bye Ace, have a nice long life." With him behind her, Holly didn't seem him cringe because he was well aware he wouldn't.

"Wait a minute." He grabbed his rabbits and hurriedly doused his fire; he missed being able to do that with his devil fruit, he'd have to make do. "Hey lady!" carrying his rabbits, he rushed after her.

Holly ignored Ace until she was inside the trees and was lowering her shields. Once they were down, she scrubbed the location of her magical signature while Ace loosely followed munching on his rabbit. She dismissed him as he walked to a certain point, the point her shields had been, and randomly put his hand through where her barrier should have been. Then he looked surprised when he was able to do so.

He was so weird.

"Okay well, bye Ace."

"Err… yeah bye." He said a bit distracted. Holly stole a lingering look at his back and the odd tattoo she was seeing for the first time. Of course, the back muscles were almost as good- bad as the chest. This man was entirely too buff! Though if she had, to be honest, it was no surprise her brain had temporarily shut down. Wizards did not exercise properly beyond the quidditch team, they were all skinny individuals or fattening ones like Fudge. The best specimen she'd seen had been Oliver. Unfortunately, he had a girlfriend by the time she'd personally be ready to date, which meant her 'date' to the Yule ball had been Ron, which had been a painful mistake. Regardless Holly couldn't help but admire the strange ghost since he very clearly worked out and worked out often.

Eye candy she figured memorizing how Ace looked, before she settled, stepped back, and apparated expecting to never see him again.

Then she landed, and Ace collapsed in front of her with a cry of disgust. "What was that? What did you do?!" he yelled to her in exasperation and ire, not to mention confusion. Because apparently, he was apparating with her, without touching her. There must be more to his appearance than what she'd first thought.

Didn't stop her from yelling though.

"Why are you still here?" she finally found her voice.

"How am I supposed to know?" He staggered to his feet and groaned when he realized his last rabbit had hit the dirt when he'd fallen, "I was able to leave that bubble that was around the camp. I didn't expect to be thrown around like that."

Holly's heart sank a bit but she wasn't sure why it did, she'd told him to leave multiple times, it shouldn't hurt that he'd tried. "I apparated, it's magical travel," she explained, "the bubble was my shield, to keep my camp safe." Not that it had entirely worked considering Ace had gotten through it in the first place. "I took it down because some people can use a shield like that to track me through my magic."

"So I can't pass through that, huh." Ace brushed himself off, "doesn't explain why you brought me with you when you 'apparated' though, I thought you wanted to be rid of me."

"I didn't bring you!"

"You did; otherwise, I wouldn't be here Green-eyes."

"Green-eyes?!"

"Can't complain lady, you never gave me your name, I had to come up with something," He shrugged.

Huffing Holly reached up and lifted her hair showing off her scar. She honestly expected him to react, he didn't.

"Uh, that a hint? Lightning? Scar? Forehead? Zappy? Thunder?"

Holly felt her lips quirk: "You really don't recognize this?"

"No?" he cocked his head, "am I supposed to? You remember I'm not from this world right?"

'Huh.' Holly looked him up and down, well he claimed he was a muggle from another world. So, in theory, she could take his word for it, especially since he hadn't reacted at all to her scar. "Holly."

"What?"

"My name, it's Holly Potter."

He grinned and quickly extended a hand, "As I said before, Portgas D. Ace, nice to meet you."

Holly staring at his hand, deadpanned, "you couldn't touch me before, why are you trying to shake my hand?"

"Give me the benefit of the doubt here. I moved the firewood," he gave her a roguish grin. Holly gave a deep sigh in return and reached up, as she did his skin coated black. A bit wary, especially after Dumbledore, Holly reached out… and took it. Her eyes went wide as Ace shook her hand, then leaned down and kissed it with a waggle in his brow. Holly snatched it back willing away the blush threatening to spawn on her face.

"So Holly, why take me along?"

"I didn't!"

"Just like I didn't travel here by choice?"

"Yes!… wait-"

Ace laughed with a hand on his hip, "so we've established the facts, I didn't come here by choice, and you weren't involved. Yet we're stuck together." Ace had thought about it long and hard over the night. He'd either managed to spontaneously escape Impel Down, or he was still trapped. If this was real and he was 'free,' he was still trapped in a brand new world, and the only hint he had, was the girl and her magic. "So how about a deal." He offered.

"A... deal? What deal?"

"I help you with this war of yours, and you help me get home to my family." Hopefully before they went to war without him even present… if they went to fight in the first place, he had betrayed his father by ignoring his orders.

Holly grimaced because if he helped her with the war, she couldn't help him get back to his family. Which meant, she'd likely have to figure it out before the war ended. If she said no, Holly would be stuck with him anyway. But if she said yes, she'd have someone with her that wouldn't see her die, she'd send him back before that. It was… appealing.

"You don't know why I'm fighting, what I'm fighting against, or anything about the war at all."

"Gotta let you in on a little secret. I'm a pirate, I don't care. As long as I can get home and we're not murdering innocents, I'm good." Holly made a noise of surprise looking him up and down again, Ace definitely didn't look like what she expected a pirate to look like. But then again, she didn't exactly look like a typical witch either.

"Alright… it's a deal then, you help me win a war, and I help you get home."

"Great," Ace gave her a charming grin, "so… who are you fighting then?"

"Oh, just a blood-thirsty tyrant intent on killing anyone who doesn't have 'pure' magical blood," her expression crossed a bit, "his name is Voldemort-"

Around them, cracks of apparation began to sound.


	3. Chapter 3

Cracks sounded around Holly and Ace as shadowed figures appeared in the forest around them; and as they began to solidify, Holly Potter groaned in complete and utter annoyance.

"Not again." She whined while narrowly resisting the urge to rub her forehead in exasperation. Instead, she lifted her arm and without a moment's hesitation hurled a spell at the first man that fully formed; she dropped him before he had even finished apparating, which would no doubt cause him to splinch, but at that point, Holly didn't care.

Stepping up beside her Ace lifted a hand, reacting to her sudden aggression, a part of him was prepared to hurl fire until he recalled he couldn't, so he coated his hand with haki and cracked his fingers. "What's this?" he asked as Holly shot another spell at the second figure who'd formed. A moment later she twisted out of the way narrowly avoiding a bright red spell shot at her chest. Ace didn't even bother moving as it passed where she had been standing, into his chest, and out. He shot a glare at the man who shot it and was currently cackling in a crazed manner.

"Look! It's Potty!"

Holly made an aggravated sound. Somehow that stupid taunt from Malfoy had spread to the public at large, and now every death eater called her Potty in insult. Though it usually didn't overly bother her unless it was Malfoy, which meant that cursed locket was playing with her emotions again, which did make her frustrated. She flicked a spell over her shoulder at the fool and dropped him, the moron didn't even try to dodge or shield. Voldemort ought to be ashamed.

"These are snatchers." She explained to Ace, "the lowest of the low of you-know-who-"

"Don't know who."

"Quit that!" she said more amused than anything else as Ace calmly waltzed up to one of the snatchers attacking Holly and waved a hand in front of their face. The woman couldn't see him. After checking that, Ace punched her, knocking her out cold in a single restrained thump. Then he winked at Holly and strode toward the next attacker casually. "So how'd they find us? Didn't you use… that bubble thing?" he noted to himself that all of these enemies seemed to be able to teleport just like Holly could, though they certainly didn't use it very efficiently.

"It's called a ward, and I didn't put it up yet. But that's not why they found us. They found us because I forgot about the taboo." Again.

It wasn't the first time she'd done so, she'd done it four times prior while talking to herself after Ron and Hermione left. The first time she'd been incredibly panicked, surviving only because of the training Sirius had done with her over her fifth summer break. As it turned out, saying Voldemort always resulted in snatchers coming to capture her. But snatchers were frankly, weak. They were the lowest of the low, the fleas of Voldemort's forces. Their only skills came from the pitiful defense lessons in Hogwarts instead of the training Voldemort gave his elite. And Holly, who had been trained and was a skilled dueler didn't really have any problems with snatchers, even when caught off guard.

"Taboo?" Ace questioned casually tripping a snatcher who had been about to cast at Holly, then he slammed his heel into the back of their head knocking them out.

"Basically, if you say you-know-who's name-" she shot him a warning look when he went to open his mouth, "-your location is revealed to this lot, and they come to capture you."

"Really." Ace drawled as the last hit the ground after trying to run when he was out-numbered. They were weak, Ace mentally put them as cannon fodder. Like baby marines, or ordinary East Blue fighters - excluding himself and his brother of course. Holly, he'd set as a decent Grand-Line Pirate, a ranged fighter who needed to learn close combat. He could teach her that, and probably haki as well, with her ranged attacks she'd do well with observation haki… if they had the time that was. He had a week at most to figure out if he was really here or trapped in a devil fruit power, so he didn't make an escape attempt. He couldn't forget the second option was possible and knew he'd have to be careful what he told Holly, he didn't know if she could be trusted, she might be a figment of some marines imagination.

Holly walked around the downed snatchers making sure they were all properly stunned before obliviating their memories. She did not want them following her or discovering her. At the same time, well, Ace was sort of doing the same thing. He stooped before the first snatcher and yanked up the sleeve of their robe to see the so-called 'mark' Holly had mentioned.

"Skull and crossbones?" he mused, noting the skull figure and the snake coming from its mouth.

"You-know-who's mark, he's obsessed with immortality and avoiding death. Therefore, a skull for a mark. I suppose it makes sense, to him?" It didn't to Ace, pirates used the skull and cross-bones, but not a single one of them were really avoiding death. They all knew there was a high chance they'd die young. That was just how most pirates bit it.

Ace shrugged and dropped the arm before he started sneaking his fingers into their pockets. He pulled out a coin purse, a few vials of liquid, a stick like Holly's, and other random knick-knacks. He pocketed it all and moved onto the next man to discover only a couple coins. Local currency for Holly's world he figured, it was gold, silver, and bronze, but was designed differently from their beri.

"Ace… what are you doing?" Holly asked.

He glanced up and shrugged, "I'm broke here," he flicked one of the gold coins through his fingers, "-and I'm hungry. Figured we can stop for dinner."

Holly gave a shocked giggle as she covered her mouth, "you use gold in your world?"

"It's called beri." He watched her tap a snatchers head to cast a spell on them.

"Ours is called galleons, but those coins only work in the magical world, and I can't exactly go there, I'm most wanted right now. Otherwise you need pounds, for the muggle world." It seemed they had something in common then, the worlds most wanted. Which also meant Ace had a good idea of the power levels of the world. If Holly was most wanted it reasoned he'd have little trouble fighting other people of her kind. Especially since their magic was useless to him. And while he had questions about this 'muggle world' and why it required a different currency, he had another pressing concern.

"What are you doing to them?" he asked, watching a silvery spell surround a snatchers head.

"Memory spell, I'm erasing their memories of this encounter."

"Huh." He watched her perform the spell committing the look and sound of it to memory just in case she used it on him. "Your world doesn't have a prison?"

"We have one, but you-know-who is in control of the government now, which means the prison. So I can't exactly get these lot arrested."

"And why don't you kill them?"

Holly stilled her wand on the forehead of a snatcher, she stared wide-eyed at the woman she was beside. Then she slowly glanced back at Ace who looked politely curious. At her look, he casually said: "I've seen civil wars, I've seen more battles then you can count… there's always death. I'm not judging you or anything, just curious. Why don't you kill them?" he'd realized it quickly, she was an excellent fighter, but she pulled her punches, and the spells she used were harmless. He doubted she'd ever killed a human, perhaps an animal, but not a human.

"I… don't… I…" Holly bit her lip and stood trying to sort out her thoughts, "everyone's always told me who I am, what I'm supposed to act like, and what I'm supposed to be. My future… my entire life has been planned on without me." She couldn't look Ace in the eyes as she said: "I suppose… that I just don't want another thing taken from me. I don't want anyone to make me a killer."

Fate and a prophecy had stolen her life, stolen her childhood, stolen her innocence and her parents. What Voldemort and that stupid little orb hadn't taken, Dumbledore had and he'd always known it. Her future had been taken away again, and again, her path had been written for her down to the minute details, and it had from the very moment Trelawny had sat in front of Dumbledore one night. Holly wouldn't even survive the year because of it, and… and while she'd accepted that, Holly did not want to kill anyone but the man she was destined to destroy. She'd resist that, only that.

"Would you care if I did it?" Ace asked, pressing the heel of his foot lightly into the neck of a snatcher. His eyes shot up questioning her, reading her.

Holly stared at Ace, stared at the man helpless and stunned under his foot. "Have you?"

"Killed someone?" She nodded. "I have, by the time I was ten I'd taken a life and I've taken dozens since then." He wouldn't make excuses, disregarding the fact that the first life he'd stolen away had been a pedophile who'd cornered Sabo. Disregarding that the lives taken afterward had been accidental or in defense of himself or his crew. The fact was he had taken life, and he wanted to know what Holly would think of that. If only to see if she'd judge him for what she wouldn't do.

Holly hesitated, staring at the snatcher and knew she knew him. A Hufflepuff, she'd met him in her third year. He'd been a part of the quidditch team, and she remembered him standing with Cedric before the match that destroyed her Nimbus began. And now he was a death eater, freely willing to capture her and do Merlin knows what with her once he had. And if she left him, well the thought had occurred to her before. There was no telling where he'd go, what he'd do once he was out of her sight. It was for that reason Holly had wanted to recapture Azkaban, but she knew it was a fools' errand.

"I don't know," she admitted, "I don't know if I'd care or not. But… I don't think I'd judge you." No, she'd take the death upon her own shoulders. Just like she'd take up the guilt of what he'd do if he lived. Regardless she'd blame herself. Hermione, if she were here, would blame that on her upbringing. The instinctive guilt her aunt and Dumbledore built into her.

"Hm." Ace removed his foot, "here's hoping we finish this war quickly then, so we can reclaim that prison." He strode toward her, "let's move on, before more of this lot show up, and you can tell me about this Voldy-guy, got any clue on how we defeat him?"

"Err…" Holly quickly rushed after Ace, who was calmly walking away a bit bemused at the abrupt change in personality, "that's it? I thought you were going to… uh…"

"Yell at you for your naivety?" he gave her a sidelong look, "give you a long lecture about how 'this is war' and you 'gotta do what ya gotta do?'"

"Well… yes."

He scoffed: "I already told you I'm a pirate, I don't give a shit about whether you want to kill or not, it's your choice. I just wanted to know because you're my ticket home, so I'll just have to watch your back and make sure you don't let one of those lot get a shot on you because you didn't take yours." He strode on as Holly's eyes went a bit wide, "used to it anyway, a couple of my brothers - my crew - don't want to kill either. I'd never force them, so I'm not gonna force you."

"Oh." Holly and Ace strode into the forest as she prepared to apparate, to erase her trail completely when Ace asked.

"So, you use magic right?"

She stilled arching a brow: "yes?"

"And you were erasing their memories?"

"Yes."

"Can you read them? Memories?" he stopped and looked at her.

Holly made a face, but in the end confirmed the truth: "Yes, I can, it's a spell called legilimency and can only be countered by mental shields. Most people don't know the counter though, and a strong legilimens can break through most shields anyway."

"So… for example, if we decided to purposely use that Voldy-guys name, defeat and capture his forces, steal their shit… and then, read their memories for information on him? It's that possible?"

Holly blinked, once, twice… she hadn't thought to do that: "well… yeah, we could. But the snatchers are small fry, basically useless."

"Ah ah ah," he waggled a finger at her, "they get their orders from somewhere. We find that location, then we find the big fish and read their memories for the sea-king."

"Is that a reference in your world?"

"Never-mind that, tell me about this Voldy-guy, then we have a plan to build."

Holly reached out her arm for Ace's when she prepared to apparate, and he arched a brow at her. "Apparating usually requires skin contact when you want to bring someone with you. Might be a bit easier on your stomach if you hold me." Ace hesitated a moment, then reached out for her. He watched as Holly went to grab his hand and went through right it as he snickered. She snorted and rolled her eyes. "Ha ha very funny, do that thing so we can go. Or maybe I'll just apparate whenever and you can deal with it."

Laughing Ace coated his arm in haki and allowed her to take it. "It's called haki, armament haki specifically, it's the use of life force as physical reinforcement to the body." Technically he was copying Marco's explanation, but he was sure his brother wouldn't mind.

"Weird."

"Says the girl with magic."

"…fair." She turned on her heal, and the world twisted around them, causing them to land in a forest near a muggle town Hermione had brought her to earlier in the year. She liked to use it to mess up her trail for pursuing death eaters. The poor fools could not fathom the train and bus system when she used it.

"This way." She directed leading Ace - who seemed already used to apparating after doing it once - into the town. A part of her was expected to have to explain everything they saw to Ace considering he hadn't known what a cell-phone was, but Ace surprised her and took their surroundings in stride. He didn't so much as blink over the passing cars, people, clothing, or shops.

"It's not too different from my world." Ace noted, and Holly jerked, "you were staring at me." He explained having guessed the reason she had done so. "Most of this I've seen on different islands, and what I haven't still isn't overly surprising. I travel a lot, you get used to strange sights." It was part of the reason he'd taken her magic in stride, after devil fruits and the weather of the new world, magic wasn't overly strange. He would bet Holly would react stronger to the fact that he was made of fire than he would to her abilities.

"Really?" Holly asked, stopping at a bus stop, "what's it like… your world?"

Ace thought on the map Holly had made for him and explained loosely: "most of my world is made of water, the only land is the islands, but each island is different." He gestured vaguely trying to remember some of what he'd been told, "on the Grand-line and in the new-world travel between islands is rare, and near impossible a few decades ago. So each island remains separated, so the customs, development, advances, language, traditions, and such are all different. Islands didn't share with each other until recently. So you can get dinosaurs on one island, then a technical marvel on the island right beside it."

"Dinosaurs? Really? Have you seen some?" Holly asked brightly, that was fascinating. Travel between islands must be so exciting, you'd never know what you'd get until you were there. For Holly who had been a caged child, and a caged teenager who'd never even seen the ocean, the idea was enthralling.

"Yeah, I've seen them, met a guy who could transform into one too."

"What?!" the bus stopped in front of them as Ace slowly explained devil fruit's finding her enthralled expression quite endearing. To the point that he loosely explained, that Marco, his eldest brother, could transform into a phoenix. He still said nothing the public and marines didn't know, just in case. Holly and Ace boarded the bus and Holly paid for herself since the driver couldn't see Ace, and they took the back seats, Ace right beside her kicked his legs up.

"Phoenix's are real in the magical world." She told Ace, "my late headmaster had one, Fawkes. He saved my life when I was twelve."

"How?" Ace wondered, he didn't think Marco's healing could extend to others.

"Uh, there was this basilisk - it's a hundred-foot-long snake that kills with one look and has deadly venom - it bit me. Fawkes tears are healing, so he cried into the bite wound and saved me." Holly pulled up her shirt showing off the scar there.

Ace gave a whistle, he'd been younger when he'd killed something that size but with a venomous bite and eyes, that was impressive especially considering Holly was physically weak. Turning Ace jerked a thumb to his back where he had three long scars across his back. "About a fifty feet high tiger nicked me when I was fourteen, was bedridden for a couple days at least."

Holly gave a started snort, "three days, whatever did you do." Three days was a long time for those with magical healing, but Ace was a muggle. Three days was a crazy short time to be in bed for such a wound with muggle doctors.

"Mostly told my brother that-" Ace cut off snapping his mouth shut, he'd almost spoken about Luffy, he'd almost put Luffy in danger.

Holly noticed his sudden silence, but from the expression on his face, it wasn't something she should push, so Holly didn't ask. Instead, she hit the bell to stop the bus and stood. "Let's get off here, there's a station nearby, we can take it deeper into the city before apparating again… and maybe we can get some food. I've meant to stock up anyway."

"Right." Ace stood following her off the bus and swore he'd never get that relaxed again. He absolutely could not say anything that could put his brothers, any of them, in danger. He remained silent as Holly showed him to a department store and told him to pick out whatever he wanted to try. Neither of them really thought what Ace carrying things would look to the muggles, but thankfully no one actually did notice. Ace found himself too distracted by the selections and wondering what the meat flavored chips tasted like and if Luffy would like them. While Holly was distracted by watching Ace and finding his sudden silence somewhat off-putting. Funny how quick she got used to having another person around her.

After getting food, Ace grabbed the bags, and they left and rounded the building. "Here, gimme." Holly requested while holding open her bottomless purse.

"Don't think much is going to fit in that." Ace commented, setting the bags down as the haki fled from his arms.

"Tisk tisk Ace, did you forget? I'm a witch." With an exaggerated movement, Holly lifted the bags and dropped them one by one into her purse. She highly enjoyed watching Ace's face go slack in quick surprise as her little bag swallowed the others. "If you think this is impressive, just wait until you see the tent."

"Tent?"

* * *

Holly put away the groceries as Ace wandered room to room through her magical tent yelling exclamations as he went. Holly couldn't wait till he discovered the plumbing, the shower was absolutely the best part Holly decided. A thump of someone jumping on the bed, followed by Ace yelling in delight had her grin fondly.

Flicking her wand, Holly set a simple meal to cook using the spell Molly had taught her and went for her journal. Dropping it on the table Holly took a seat and flicked it open absently rubbing at her bruised neck, she was going to need some more potion for the bruising, it was getting a bit raw again. She'd have to make some though, she'd used the last of it recently which meant she'd need to take some time to set up her cauldron to brew the potion. Which was another thing to do on top of her research and now Ace's problem.

Rubbing her temples, Holly tried to focus on the loose research she'd done. Seven Horcruxes needed to be destroyed, two were gone, two more found, and the other three were unknowns. But even if she could locate the other three Holly had not been told how to destroy them once she found them like she'd found the locket. The only thing she knew would work was that the one in her head would be destroyed if she was struck by another killing curse. Which meant the method of her death was set, she had to let Voldemort kill her after she'd destroyed the other four Horcruxes, and afterward it was up to someone else to finish the then vulnerable Voldemort off.

In theory with Ace's cooperation, she could set up a way for him to return after she was dead and he could finish Voldemort. He was immune to magic and couldn't be seen, so if he were willing, he'd be able to kill Voldemort after she was gone with ease. But Holly didn't want to leave that on his shoulders. Because she didn't know if after she was gone, he'd remain - since he seemed attached to her. Because he wasn't part of their world. Because he needed to go home and she didn't want him to see her die like everyone else would. Because there was still that tiny part of her that thought if she could find a safe way to destroy the locket's Horcrux, then she could also use it on herself, and she'd live-

She rubbed her neck again and gazed hopelessly at her research. Months she'd done this, months wandering the country and trying to figure it out. All she had to show for it was a building scarring on her neck and the knowledge that she was failing.

A hand brushed the back of her neck, and Holly flinched.

"Sorry." Said Ace as she swung around, he took a step back apologetically with his hands up. He'd done it before thinking, before asking himself how'd she'd react to touch in the vulnerable spot, one he'd personally punch someone out for touching. But he'd been watching her for several minutes and had seen her continually rubbing at that area, he'd grown curious, and a bit concerned.

"It's fine." She mumbled brushing her hair, so it properly covered her neck, "do you need something?"

"No," he moved around the table to sit in front of her, "just wondering why you wear that thing, shouldn't you change the chain?" his mind was already wandering to different reasons for it. The scarring on her neck - and yes he'd seen it - looked like the result of slavery, like someone's neck after wearing a collar for too long. But she didn't seem like a prisoner, so perhaps it was sentimental, but even sentiment to the point of injury… why would she do that?

"It's…" Holly paused as she looked at Ace. She hadn't told anyone in the order about the Horcruxes, she hadn't spoken of it to anyone outside Hermione and Ron. And Voldemort hadn't told anyone but her about it. She knew the headmaster would roll in her grave if she spoke about it to a muggle. Especially one she'd just met, for all she knew, he could be faking her out. Could she really risk the knowledge of Horcruxes on Ace?

Right now… no.

"It's a bit heavy sometimes. But it… I can't leave it behind, so I wear it." Not a lie, she wasn't lying to him.

Ace nodded, letting it drop just like she'd not asked about his earlier cut off comment, and changed the subject: "so, how do we defeat this guy and get me home?"

Holly winced because he'd asked exactly what she wasn't going to tell him. She couldn't tell him about the Horcruxes… and she didn't have to. "Your suggestion earlier was a good idea, if we remove you-don't-know-who's elite members, then he loses power, and we can target him directly." Ace laughed as Holly altered her 'you-know-who' just to stop him from telling her he didn't know who she was talking about.

Really though, if she could get her hands on people like Bellatrix, she might be able to pull the locations of the other Horcruxes' from them. Voldemort must have trusted more of his elite with them like he had Regulus and Lucius. "As for getting you home, first we have to figure out how you got here in the first place. So, tell me everything, what happened?"

Ace kicked back in his chair, leaning it on two legs. He decided quickly there was no harm in telling her, it was public knowledge in his world, the marines couldn't use anything he said against him if he was careful. "I was hunting a traitor to my family, a man that killed one of our brothers for some stupid trinket." He snarled enraged at that fat bastard that had dared to threaten Luffy to Ace's face. "He defeated me and handed me to the marines so he could become a Shichibukai."

"A what?!" Holly recoiled a bit as she flipped through her journal to a few empty pages so she could write a few notes.

"Pirates who work for the marines for different benefits, a couple of them aren't too terrible, but mostly they suck." Mostly Hancock he'd heard was a decent leader to her people, and Mihawk was friends with Shanks and rarely did what he was told to do by the marines. But on the opposite hand, there was Crocodile - who Luffy had beaten up - and Doflamingo. "They accepted because they wanted to start a war." Holly gave him a confused look, and he sighed, "they think by executing me in public my father will try to rescue me, they want to kill him and put the marines back in power with his death."

"Why do you sound like… like you think he won't come? He's your dad, isn't he?"

"By choice," Ace muttered, "not by blood. Anyway, I disobeyed a direct order to hunt down Teach. I betrayed them, they're better off leaving me to rot."

"Ace." Holly breathed baffled by the sudden shift in his mood and attitude, "that can't be true! They're your family, of course they'll save you." She had to have faith in that, that not only would Ace's family save him, but that her family would have tried to save her given the chance. She knew if she'd let Hermione and Ron know… she knew they never would have stopped until they found a way to save her life. And that was why she'd been forced to make them leave her; because Holly couldn't allow them to carry that guilt and anguish should they fail.

"They shouldn't, and they won't, I'm not worth that."

What? That was bull! She'd barely known Ace a day and knew he was definitely worth it. "Ace-" he cut her off with a snarl of anger as he dropped his chair onto all fours with a loud bang.

"Doesn't fucking matter if they're coming or not, it has nothing to do with how I got here." He slammed his hands on the table, "I was put in Impel Down, the prison no one escapes from! They locked me in the lowest levels covered in sea-stone chains. After a few days, I fell asleep, and I woke up here. Nothing else happened." He shoved away from the table, "I'm going to crash, do whatever… and your food is burning."

"What?!" Holly spun to check her stove, and sure enough, the meat she'd left cooking was now burning. At some point, she'd lost control of her spell. Holly rushed to fix the mess, and when she finally turned back, Ace was gone, and the door to the room Ron used to use, was closed. Holly sighed and set the burnt meat onto a plate, she was better off not wasting it.

"Ah, I didn't ask him what Sea-stone was." She realized as she set her plate on the table, "I'll have to tomorrow morning." For the time being, she'd have to see if Hermione had any books on travel across worlds. Maybe it was something like astral projection since Ace wasn't physically present unless he was using haki. She was sure she had a book on that somewhere, it was worth a read.

Holly ate her dinner in silence before going hunting for the book. While in the other room, Ace lay on the single bed with an arm across his eyes. Truthfully he hadn't intended to get so angry, but Holly had brought up something that was a trigger for him. Now he couldn't stop thinking about his family, about the marines gathering up to kill his father and brothers. And if he wasn't in denial, Ace knew they'd show up. Whitebeard would never allow this challenge to lie no matter what Ace might have done before his capture. It was becoming so complicated, putting aside Holly and how he'd ended up in her world, Ace knew the Marines were aware now of who his blood father was. He knew they'd used it against him even if he escaped, and they'd reveal the truth to the world, to his family.

Closing his eyes, Ace's being cried out for rest. He'd been pushing it back for days unwilling to let his guard down in Impel Down. But he wasn't physically there anymore and as odd as it was, he was confident Holly would not cast spells on him while he was asleep.

A few minutes wouldn't change anything, right?

Ace drifted, let the world around fade for all but the sounds of Holly moving around in the other room. He could sense her hunting through a collection of books as she knelt on the ground. Could sense something around her neck, a black spot that nearly brought him to awareness- when he heard dripping water instead of a softly crackling fire. And then there was a scream-

His eyes snapped open to find himself chained downed once more, and trapped in the freezing darkness alone.


	4. Chapter 4

Hermione used to tell Holly that she had an absolutely wretched posture. She'd do her homework hunched over like a bat - and Ron's comparison to Snape had not helped her temper at all - while she squinted at whatever it was she'd been reading. Squinted because Holly was incredibly near-sighted and while Holly could spot a snitch from miles away, she could not read the words right in front of her face. Truthfully, the incorrect prescription of glasses she'd worn for years hadn't helped. Thankfully Bill Weasley had realized the prescription was wrong when she'd been fourteen, and he'd dragged her off to get her a pair of expensive automatically updating glasses. Of course, by then it was too late to fix her posture unless Holly worked on it, which she hadn't.

So while Ace slept in Ron's room, Holly sat hunched over in one of the chairs before the fire. It had been her spot before Ron and Hermione had left. She'd sit there with Hermione nose deep in her book, and Ron would be sketching something he'd never showed them. Hermione would be trying to figure out what could be a Horcrux as she went over Dumbledore's clues again and again. While Holly would be looking for a way to destroy them and the locket, while also aware that any method she came up with, also had to work on her.

Holly remembered one afternoon Ron had slammed his hands on the table startling both Holly and Hermione. That day had been a better one with Holly wearing the locket. He'd taken both their hands and yelled; "this is insane, we need a new point of view because we're getting nowhere! Come on, let's do something fun for a change, get our minds off this." They'd ended up dancing and playing games and just enjoying themselves while they still could. It had worked too, Hermione had realized that afternoon that Godric Gryffindor's sword could destroy the locket if they got their hands on it. Unfortunately, the sword would not help Holly.

Recalling Ron's comment that they had needed another point of view Holly later tried to work on different problems when she got too frustrated with one. Which was why she was focusing on Ace's odd issue, instead of her own. Not to mention Holly knew that strictly speaking her war could go on for years, and she at least had the rest of the year to live. While Ace was facing execution soon, she didn't know how far away that was though, it was something she'd have to ask Ace once he woke up.

Distantly Holly desperately missed Ron's scratching quill and Hermione's soft mumbles as they worked. But while Ace was deadly silent in Ron's room, Holly was thankful for the awareness that he was there. That knowledge alone relaxed her in a way she couldn't quite describe and didn't quite understand. And perhaps it was his presence and the change he brought forth that had her quickly realizing something.

"Astral projection!" Holly cried, punching the air in victory as she nearly unseated her book right into the fire. Thankfully she caught it before it could go over.

Astral projection had to be what was happening to Ace, it fit perfectly. Conscious but incorporeal in a location he hadn't been before, unable to touch or be seen - excluding his haki and herself - but aware. It fit except for the fact that Ace didn't have magic. Though it must be possible to perform astral projection on someone else, but how? Who? And why?!

"Why end up with me though?" Holly asked herself as she tapped her chin, "he's from another world… oh-oh no." Holly's eyes went a bit wide. If it was astral projection than Ace was physically still in prison, which meant his body was helpless and soon to be dragged off to execution while his mind was with her-

Something struck the floor behind her and Holly snapped around hand going for her wand. In all likelihood, she knew it was probably Ace, but paranoia kept her alive as Moody drilled into her. Scanning the area Holly frowned. One of the cups Ron had left on the back had fallen off the shelf mysteriously, and no one was there. Should that have happened to someone else they might not have reacted as Holly did, they might have come up with an excuse for why it happened or dismissed it. Might have assumed Ace nudged it on his way to bed and it had taken that long to fall. Holly wasn't most people.

Strange occurrences like that had happened all her life; Potter luck Ron used to call it. Without fail every time she needed to pay attention to something, something would fall near her. It happened when she'd been desperate for a hint in her fourth year about the dragons. Something had landed just in time for her to stop and overhear Ron talking to Neville about finding a way to warn her about the dragons without physically being present. And when she'd later needed a sign about the lake, a cup of water had splashed over the egg when she'd had it open and had altered the screeching enough to give her a sign. Instances like that had happened all her life, and Holly instinctively responded to them now.

Instantly she shot to her feet wand in hand and quickly cast a scanning charm for the area around her tent. It came up empty.

_Empty._

"Ace." Holly exhaled and rushed for Ace's room in a rush of panic. Because they spell should have picked up everyone in the area outside herself, which meant Ace, and if it hadn't then-

She burst into Ace's room and came to a dead stop. In the middle of the bed was Ace hanging on invisible chains and more faded than she'd ever seen him. Holly had to strain her eyes to make out his form. As Holly watched Ace abruptly jerked like a force as invisible as the chains had struck him across the face. She watched in shock as Ace shook violently then straightened up near instantly and snarled like an animal.

"Ace!?" she called, stepping forward warily. His eyes were open, but he wasn't reacting like he could see her, which made her concerned that he was sleeping. She knew how violent she could be after a nightmare and considering what she'd seen of Ace's speed, she was afraid he could hurt her accidentally, especially if his strength matched that speed. She had no idea if he'd use haki in his sleep, and the unknowns of the situation ensured she didn't touch him.

Still, the fact was, Holly was worried. As Ace jerked again and grunted, as a blackening bruise formed on his cheek and eye, as he did nothing to stop what was happening to him and as he continued to not react to her.

"Ace! Wake up!" she ordered from a decent distance. Nothing, he wasn't responding. Holly bit her lip glancing around as if looking for help where none was to be found. Left alone she reached forward to grab him and shake him out of it as he jerked violently again. "Ace!" her hand went right through his shoulder and she yanked back. Stumbling backward Holly watched as Ace's head swung back and hit an invisible wall.

But still, he didn't wake.

* * *

Rouge hadn't been able to watch her son when Lily had been forced to release the spell on him temporarily. She hadn't wanted to, not while the kids were bonding. But the guards had come, and neither Lily nor Rouge had wanted Ace mentally absent while they were so close to him.

Now Rouge had left to watch Holly, while Lily watched over Ace. Lily knew Rouge had to be feeling intensely guilty, for Rouge had energy saved up inside her before this but hadn't known it. Rouge had been able to use her haki, but while Ace was trapped within Impel down, nothing Rouge could do with haki would help him. So Rouge had put her faith in Holly and had given Lily all her energy to connect Ace and Holly mentally. Which meant as the guards came to taunt and beat her son, Rouge could do nothing and had fled unable to watch.

Lily frankly didn't want to watch either. This cruelty reminded her of Azkaban, but instead of the monstrous Dementors, it was humans torturing a young man for who his father was and for no other reason but that.

"You're good for her," Lily told Ace even if he couldn't hear her as she tried to distract herself, told him as the guard punched Ace across the face while he hung limp. Lily watched as the young man bared his teeth at the guard, never showing a moments weakness. "She's smiling more, and she's actually laughing now! I haven't heard her laugh in months." Lily winced as Ace's head cracked to the back of the cell, "she's going to be good for you too."

Lily knew her daughter and Ace were bonding, and she knew from what Rouge had told her that Ace was slow to trust but eternally loyal to those that earned it… Holly was the same. She knew they were bonding, but Lily was ever aware of the ticking clock on the energy within her and how long both Ace and Holly really had. Holly who's fate was still directly tied to the Horcrux in her head and the future of the magical world. And Ace, who had an axe over his head held up by a timer in the hands of the Marines. She knew if her magic ran out too early then everything she, James, Sirius, and Rouge had done… would be useless. She knew if Ace and Holly couldn't learn to trust each other, then they would likewise both be dead before the year-end. She tried to have hope, but Lily had always been a pessimist. James was the positive one between them, the one who had faith and so much joy within him, and since she remained with Ace, James stayed with Holly, and without James present Lily couldn't erase the thoughts plaguing her.

Another crack of flesh had Ace violently thrown to the side, and still, he didn't make a sound. And Lily desperately wished she had the magic to spare, to destroy and burn these monstrous men that thought they represented justice. Lily brutally crushed the idea, she dared not waste a moment of her energy on them. For one spell could mean the difference between life and death for Ace, and for Holly. So she remained still, vigilant at Ace's side as he was beaten black and blue.

The guards finished, and Lily sagged in relief when she felt arms wrap around her middle. Lily leaned back, knowing right away it was James come from Holly's side. James coming to her because he always, always, knew when she needed him. "His soul is still present with her, they're still tied together, so we don't have to recast that spell," James told her his face in a frown, "But… his form there is moving like it is here and we decided to bring her attention to it."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Lily asked as Ace spat out blood and shook out his head to stop it from ringing.

"Rouge and I agreed, it's better she has an idea of what's happening, especially if this happens again." Which in all likelihood it would. Lily nodded, agreeing with their idea before pulling away and triple checking that the guards were gone.

"Do we know how we're going to get her to the wand yet?" She asked giving the wounds Ace had sustained a second look. A bit of bruise paste, a few healing charms and he'd be fine; but Lily had neither. She could do nothing for the young man who was her daughter's soul-mate who was saving Holly just by being around her.

In another world, Lily might not have met Ace considering the different worlds. But if they had, well Lily would likely have watched this man marry her Holly. She'd see him standing at the altar with her, Holly would bring him home for holidays and James would do everything to prank/test him to see if he was worthy. Then one day Lily and James would have met Holly and Ace's children, with Ace and Rouge's beautiful freckles, Holly and her eyes, and James' obnoxious hair that Ace matched curiously well.

Lily longed for such a world, a world where she got to raise her child and perhaps a second. A world where Ace did not have to suffer the way he was. Where Holly and Ace both did not have to fear death at such a young age.

But that world didn't exist.

"We're working on it," James told her gently, it was one of the few things he and Sirius could do for her and for Ace, they knew how important it was. But getting Holly to the blond menace that currently owned the wand was proving tricky. Doubly so now that Ace was present.

"So, no." Lily knelt before Ace who spat out a glob of blood on the ground, and she reached for his head. Lily paused as Ace suddenly sagged, defeat in his body and his soul. "You're worried it's not real aren't you." She realized looking at the boy who physically was as old as she and James when they'd died. They'd have to find a way to tell him it was real because if he didn't trust it, he didn't trust Holly and they wouldn't bond enough for Holly to try to survive and for her to save him. "We'll figure it out."

Lily reached forward and sank her fingers into Ace's hair, and her spell dragged his consciousness away, his body going limp once more.

* * *

Ace watched the guards leave as a chill rushed over his skin. Only when they were long gone did he allow himself to sag onto his chains and really feel what had happened too him. Because, because he was a moron, he'd allowed himself to have something as stupid as hope. He'd actually believed Holly Potter had been a real woman, believed that with her magic she could save him if he saved her. And then he'd woken up to the guards rounding the corner toward his cell.

His blackened eye and the bruises coating his arms were all the sign he needed. She'd been a trick, a trap to get him to lower his barriers, to give out information on his father and siblings. He gave a sardonic laugh, it was a good trick. She was charming, attractive, and frankly his type. She had a ballsy-ness that drew him to her, a sarcastic wit that allowed her to banter with him, but not the type to get offended either by what was discussed. And her body, her eyes were as green as the forests he'd loved as a child, while he'd always loved dark hair. And she could fight, which meant she'd be able to go out to sea and actually defend herself.

He'd liked her, he could admit that. Perhaps that was why he'd fallen for it, it was probably why he should have suspected her more. She fit him too well, and clearly, there had been a reason for that. She was designed by marines, designed to trap him.

It hurt… he'd wanted her to be real, wanted a chance with her…but, of course, he didn't deserve that. All he deserved was death, that's all.

_"Ace. That can't be true! They're your family, of course they'll save you."_

He grit his teeth, grinding them together as he scanned the area for a den-den. Surely the Marines had to be recording him, laughing at his expense. He didn't see one, but that didn't mean they weren't there.

A chill brushed over his forehead, and ice entered his brain like the worst headache he'd ever had. Ace recoiled gasping as his eyes went wide, as he saw a flash of red… there she was, the Marine, the one responsible for this-

The world twisted away from him, glittering and dancing before he found himself back on the bed in 'Holly's' tent. With the figment sitting right in front of him- and Ace snarled in rage.

Holly yelped and jerked backward when Ace suddenly gasped and sagged forward. As he scanned the area around him and caught her eyes with his own for the first time in the hours he'd been out. Relief rushed through her heart as he returned to himself, she'd honestly been terrified that she'd end up alone again. She'd gotten attached to Ace in a way that hadn't happened since she'd first met Ron. Her connection with Ace had been instant, unmistakable, undeniable, and in another situation, she would have fallen hard and fast. She could picture it, the pair of them in his world, a pirate come to her town and the two of them bumping into each other on the streets before snarking at each other for hours. She'd probably want to ask him out but would be too afraid to, and he'd ask instead. Then she'd leave her town for him and travel the world like she'd always dreamed of.

But this wasn't that world, and Holly didn't have the luxury of trust with what lay in Ron's bed. So Holly shoved back the day-dreams and forced herself to keep neutral even if worry had been building for the last several hours as she watched Ace's limp body grow black and blue with unnaturally occurring bruises. Keep indifferent to the man she had an obnoxious building attraction to.

"Alright Ace? You were kinda… going a bit weird there-" she fell back on their banter, trusting he'd respond to her as he had the other times. But before she got too far into it, rage overtook Ace's face.

Holly hadn't seen Ace fight for real, she didn't know how fast he moved except for the one spell he'd dodged, and she didn't know he was much faster than that when he tried. So when Ace charged at her, she was taken aback and had no chance at all to avoid his grab. Ace was fast, faster than any spell she'd seen cast. He moved almost instantaneously, and Holly had no chance to avoid him. Not as his hand blackened and he grabbed her shirt by the collar and suddenly slammed her into the nearest wall.

"Is this fun for you?" he snarled, pushing firmly against her collarbone.

"W-what?" she stuttered hands automatically going up to catch his wrists, but they unlike the rest of him wasn't blackened with his haki, and she went straight through leaving her helpless to his grip.

"Dragging me around, beating me black and blue then giving me this fucking hope only to rip it away?! What do you want? What secrets do you think you'll take from me!"

"Ace-"

"Is it fun?" he shook her slightly, and Holly built a bit of magic into her hands, she didn't need her wand, but it certainly helped. However Ace knew she used a wand to attack, which meant Holly had to defend herself without it, lest he snap it with his speed. She wasn't sure if a spell would help her, but while he wasn't yet hurting her, she was wary that he might soon. His touch was firm but not bruising, not cutting off her airway, it was keeping her still and was incredibly threatening, but that was it. Considering how fast he moved Holly reasoned his strength was not to laugh at, he could no doubt snap her neck like a twig.

At least then the Horcrux would be gone from the world.

"Why don't you just drop the act, don't know why you're bothering with this. Why not just go all out and show me everyone I love dead around my feet, I bet it would be more entertaining! Oh unless you're one of those, convinced I can't love because I'm a pirate right!"

"Ace I don't know what you're talking about!" Holly charged more magic into her palms ready but hoping she could calm him down.

"Don't lie to me Marine, I figured it out- you-" Holly saw something from the side-table of Ron's bed suddenly lift off the table and hurl itself at the back of Ace's head. But she knew it wasn't her, she still had control of her magic. So what was that? Was the coincidences in her life, more than coincidences?

Ace jerked forward surprising them both when the item actually hit him instead of going right through his head to hit her. He gave a surprised gasp and glanced back; seeing nothing, he turned back on her: "What did you do now?" He demanded.

"It wasn't me!" she told him offended, he knew bloody well that her magic didn't work on him, "I can't even use magic on you."

"Likely story-" his grip tightened, and she decided enough was enough.

"Okay, that's enough now." Holly released the building magic in her palms and hurled it at Ace. Amazingly the instinctive spell worked, and it shoved him back a few steps, forcing him to release her. That done Holly swiftly cast a simple ward between them, just in case. "You need to calm down because I have no idea what's going on with you. One minute I'm reading my book - to get you home by the way - and I came to check on you to find you hanging on the bed and acting like someone was hitting you. Then you woke up and freaked." She gestured loosely to the bed, "so, what happened?"

He bared his teeth at her: "I went to sleep and woke up in Impel Down just in time for the guards to find their enjoyment in my flesh."

Holly shot a look at the bruising and scowled, she was beginning to suspect- No, she shook her head and focused on Ace. "So you assumed I was involved, that I'm keeping you here to mess with you."

"Obviously." He nudged loosely at the ward between them with a hand confirming for himself that she'd placed something there. Deep down he approved, she protected herself… which was another reason he liked and hated her.

Holly puffed up in indignant fury and stomped her foot: "Obviously not! I haven't done a thing, and if you remember, I was the one trying to leave you this whole time. Also! You offered the deal to me, not the other way around. I haven't been taking steps here Ace, that's been you. So calm down and let's think about this rationally."

"Rationally?!"

"Yes!" She waved away the ward noting he had calmed down, then stepped forward and pretended to poke him in the chest, "an unknown force sends you to me while you're trapped in prison, this same force brings you back to prison when the guards arrive, then when they leave, it brings you back here. Do you know what that makes me think?" Ace grunted, curious despite himself, "it makes me think it's looking out for you."

He made a face uncertain now: "…what?"

Holly rolled her eyes, placing her hand on her hip: "you're trapped and going to be executed in prison so you get sent to someone who can help with magic. But it can't send you physically, only mentally." She gestured in the general direction of the living room, "I did some reading while you were out, I believe what's happening to you is a type of astral projection. That means your consciousness is here, but your body is still in your world. Which also means if you had remained mentally here when these guards showed up, they would have found your body helpless to defend itself. Now, what would they have done if they found you like that?"

Ace winced quickly filling in the blanks of her question. It would have been bad. The previous times he'd been able to somewhat alter where the worst damage was going, he'd been able to brace himself. But if he hadn't been able to do that…

"So, whoever it is, drags you back so you can handle the guards. Then when they're gone, and you're safe again, you get sent back to me."

"Who would do that? And why pick you? The theory doesn't fit."

"I'm sure someone exists that would help you, and as for why me… well, maybe because I needed help too. Maybe you're the 'power the dark lord knows not,'"

"What nonsense are you saying now."

She flapped a dismissive hand: "It's part of a prophecy that was given about me and you-don't-know-who." Ace gave a single chuckle, and Holly smirked pleased he'd calmed down properly, "I'm supposed to defeat him with some power he doesn't know about and considering you're invisible and immune to… most magic. You'd be a pretty good power."

Ace sagged, feeling a pang of growing guilt. What Holly said made sense, more sense than his theory did. Because in retrospec, if the Marines wanted information, they'd probably just torture him for it. They wouldn't let him enjoy his last two weeks of life. Still: "That doesn't explain what hit me."

"I am going to assume that was the being that sent you here, whoever it is probably doesn't want you messing with me since I'm supposed to help-" something dropped off a shelf nearby, and they both turned to look at it with equally baffled expressions. Then Holly's grew triumphant as she shot him a superior look that just screamed 'see! I told you so.'

Ace's lips quirked, he was unable to help himself from being mildly amused.

Hope was dangerous Ace knew, it was dangerous to have hope in Impel down. But even as he knew that Ace knew that he was a pirate and he knew deep down he still held a distant hope that he'd maybe survive to live the year. Hoped his father and siblings wouldn't let him die without a fight. It was the type of hope he had never carried as a child, a kind of faith he blamed entirely on Luffy.

Ace knew that he had a desperate hope that Holly was not a trick. That the thought of her being the result of marines had hurt in a way he couldn't understand. It had been easy to believe it, that she'd been fake when he'd been in the dark and cold, when he'd been beaten by marines, and she hadn't been in front of him. It was harder to smother hope when it was physically in front of him, when he could touch Holly, and she could fight back. It was harder to believe as anger, exasperation, and amusing rushed across her features. Or when she looked at him with concern and fondness that he knew a marine could never fake.

She could be real, that is what he wanted to believe. She could save him. She could be a real person - could be his future- or she could be a trap, he could kill her in this potential dream, and if she was a lie, he'd know the truth right then. But if she, then he'd ruin his only chance at escape.

So the question was, could he allow himself to hope or not? And the moment he thought it, all Ace could do was picture Luffy's face and knew he'd have to at least try.

"Do you have ghosts in your world?" Ace asked.

"Yes, but people with magic can usually see them, and I can't see anything."

They continued to stare at each other, and eventually, Ace said with a touch of apology in his voice: "how about I cook something? Without burning it." He tried to tease, to recover from what had just happened as he gave into hope slightly.

A part of Holly didn't want to let him get away with it so easily, a small glimmer that screamed out a need for an apology. But as the locket at her neck twinged, she found himself too exhausted to care. Instead, Holly allowed them to move on; and she told herself she wasn't overly bothered, told herself that Ron held his anger far longer than Ace did, and Ace had damned good reason to be tense and suspicious of her. Just like she did him. Just like she found it useful to know in the worst case, a ward would work against him. But Holly also knew that unless something drastic happened, it was very likely she'd never truly trust Ace, she'd never tell Ace about the horcruxs. Because as much as she believed her theory about Ace; paranoia had kept her alive, and until she didn't need to be 'alive' anymore she'd hold onto it.

"That would be nice, I have a bit more reading to do on astral projection. I think I might be able to reverse what's been done to you, but… in retrospect that doesn't fix much." They exited the bedroom together as Ace headed for the fridge. Holly meanwhile thought over her new problem and realization. If she was right about everything, then whoever sent Ace to her wanted her to save him. The problem was Holly had no idea how Ace was in a completely different world in an 'unbreakable' prison. While she was trying to end a war while timing her death correctly.

Technically, her agreement with Ace only said she had to send him back to his world, which knowing what she did about astral projection meant she could do that at any time. But now she knew the truth, sending him back would be sending him to his death at the hands of Marines. She would be sentencing him to death as much as Dumbledore had done her, and that didn't sit at all right with her. She liked Ace, she didn't want him to die.

Ace didn't respond to her comment clearly, having realized the same thing. Instead, he gave a brief nod and strode toward the kitchen going through it like it was second nature, which made her assume he was used to the muggle technology her world had for the most part. Sitting back in her chair, Holly snatched up her book and returned to reading, offhand she wrote down a few theories about who could have sent Ace to her. But whoever it was would need magic and not haki, and they'd have to be aware of her problem. Not to mention, why Ace? If she thought about it in reverse, instead of who would pick her for him, she thought of who would pick him for her.

Holly lowered her book and glanced toward Ron's room and made a face. Was it possible whoever it was… was dead? Which could mean… no, that wasn't possible, if there were ghosts involved she'd be able to see them. Perhaps it was a wizard in Ace's world, or even her own magic acting up? She was reasonably sure she wasn't using magic, but who really knew, perhaps it was something passive in her blood.

In the end though, there was little point in dwelling on it. Holly had larger problems to deal with; issues like finding a way to save Ace from her world, not to mention hopefully saving her own life after he was gone.

She reached up and rubbed at her neck, the locket was dragging on her again and cutting into her skin. It was growing harder and harder to wear it now that she didn't have Ron and Hermione to share in the burden. And Ace, he could neither wear it nor know what it was. Holly knew because of that she could never let Ace touch the locket, his mind would have no defenses at all against it.

Shaking her head, Holly returned to her book until Ace dropped a massive amount of food between them. He split the amount in half, leaving her gaping because Holly had never finished that amount of food in her life. It was more than even the Dursley's ate times three.

"Ace this is too… much…" she trailed off as he opened his mouth and inhaled the food in front of him. She stared in quiet awe and disgust, he ate more than Dudley and Vernon put together and faster than Ron, and yet he was… muscular? How did that work?! Was that a guy thing? She'd seen plenty of boys at the Hogwarts table inhale their food like Ace was doing now, but the amount was unreal.

"Are you gon- eat? 'S good." He rumbled at her, meat hanging out of his mouth.

"Y-yeah." She set aside her book and took a small amount. Holly took a tentative bite and found Ace staring her down, he'd finished his half and as Holly watched his hands twitched. Her brow rose. He was acting like he was only barely refraining from stealing and wolfing down her meal as well. "Do you want some of mine? I don't eat much?" she never had, and probably never would either.

"Yes!" Ace grabbed for her plate and took a significant chunk of the meat he'd left there, which also vanished into the bottomless pit that was his stomach.

Snorting as she ate her smaller portion Holly had the feeling Ace and Ron would get along just fine if they ever met.

* * *

"Ready?"

Ace stood at her side, feet apart and fists up, he cracked his hands and neck then nodded to her. "Ready."

Holly rolled up her sleeves, triple checked the locket was hidden and spelled under her neck so it couldn't be removed if something went wrong. Then Holly cleared her throat, and together they spoke the same name.

"Voldemort."


	5. Chapter 5

Holly had a problem, an undeniable, slightly annoying, eye-catching problem. A problem, by the name Portgas D. Ace.

Holly and Ace had started to purposely invoke Voldemort's name to 'gather information from the enemy,' as Ace said. And Holly, who could handle Snatcher's alone, could destroy them with Ace, invisible and immune to magic, assisting her. Which was an excellent thing and not her problem; no Holly's problem was the fact that Ace, due to his state as an astral projection - that happened to be able to fight - appeared as his body currently existed. Which meant how he looked in prison, basically Ace was shirtless, twenty-four seven.

Most wouldn't have precisely considered having a massively attractive man shirtless around them as a problem; especially once he started to fight. Ace, buff as he was, had muscles built for gawking, as he twisted and fought his body would smoothly move into these poses that she just- and what was she talking about again? Oh yes. Holly wasn't most people; she wanted to be able to fight, defend, and duel with the snatchers to keep up her training, to ensure she didn't become too comfortable when she would have to fight Voldemort soon. But every invocation of Voldemort's name caused Ace to fight, and Holly couldn't keep her train of thought once he did so.

Holly stared, she could admit it. Ace was a god of war, body moving elegantly in practiced movements. His hair would swing, strands laying against his skin as he worked up a light sweat before they started. And the smile, the smile was enough to knock her out. When Ace fought, this expression would cross his face, one she never saw outside a battle that was just- she didn't have words for it. It made her heart skip a beat, made her mouth drop open, made her entire focus vanish into the wind-

The form, the stretch, the kick, the punch, she stared and stared and stared- and sidestepped a spell heading for her head, trying to get back into the battle- and then Ace rushed across the field right past her.

So yes, Holly had a bit of a problem focusing. To be fair to herself, the Snatchers were incredibly inbred, and frankly, they were weak; they couldn't hold her attention for long, not while Ace was doing all that.

"Alright there, Holly?"

"Err, yeah?" she snapped to attention as Ace knocked out the last Snatcher and her gaze snapped up to meet his- and bloody hell, he'd noticed. He was looking at her in intense amusement, and stretched- yes please, thank you- Ace snorted as she blanked her expression trying to recover a small amount.

"You should work on that distraction, do that in a large battle and you'll get someone, like yourself, killed." And there went her good mood. Holly forced the corners of her lips up, but the smile she plastered on her face got nowhere close to her eyes. As was true every time Ace cautioned her about her weaknesses in battle and the potential costs, he always used her life in danger as the warning, and Holly knew it wouldn't really matter if she filled in those holes in her defenses. They existed for a reason, those holes were the same ones Dumbledore had purposely left in when he'd trained her, the same ones she thought in her darkest moments perhaps had been left there on purpose.

"I'll try." She lied and hated that she had, Holly put a lot of effort into staying as honest as possible with Ace. But her impending death and the Horcruxes, those alone she kept to herself, Holly refused to allow Ace to take that burden on. Refused to allow him to find out the truth of her fate; he didn't need to know, he wouldn't be around to see it happen.

"Good." Ace strode toward her side, "If you didn't I might have to teach you the basics of observation haki… would help with your aim and dodging."

Holly perked straight up. Haki, all the versions of it, had highly interested her. Doubly so when Ace explained that it was willpower and anyone was capable of using it. She knew it could help immensely with the fight against Voldemort; it could also be 'the power the Dark Lord knew not,' and she was most eager to learn and see if that was true. "Now, who do you want to start with?" Ace made a bit of a hand motion copying the general movement for casting a spell. Holly inclined her head, focusing on the real reason they were out there and strode toward the closest Snatcher stooping beside them.

"Right, let's see what we get." Holly peeled open the man's eyes and leveled her wand in front of them before casting: "Legillimens." Holly's eyes glazed over slightly as she dove into the man's memories.

Ace squatted beside her keeping his expression as blank as he dared. The memory reading didn't overly bother him, it was fairly obvious when she was doing it, so he felt secure in the knowledge that she wasn't reading his mind. Ace was aware that if her ability was real and she could read his mind, then she too was real; while Ace highly doubted a Marine creating this entire thing could also read minds. So at most, the Marines or Holly would only get information from his loose tongue or expression, both of which were growing increasingly difficult to control around Holly. Thankfully, on the reverse, Holly was basically an open book to him, and that wasn't just because of how much he was watching her; which he was, a lot.

He'd noticed her staring, saw the attraction she was blatantly showing him, and he knew it was returned. He wanted nothing more than to further ruin her messy black locks, to devourer her lips, to see what was under that robe of hers. But he didn't have a physical body, he was trapped within Impel down, and as attracted to her as he was, he could not forget that information. Perhaps once he was free, when he was back with his family and safe, when her war was won, and they were both free. Maybe then they could look into what they shared and explore a relationship.

But until he knew he could trust her Ace wouldn't allow their relationship to go anywhere but allies working together. Allies that hopefully did not end like most pirate allies did.

No matter how much Holly kept thinking to herself: 'maybe just once, before I-'

Holly winced and blinked several times as she ended the spell on the Snatcher. Rubbing her eyes lightly, she put away her wand and turned toward Ace.

"So, what did you see?" he asked.

"Well…"

Holly fell into the memory like she would have a pensive, landing lightly in Knockturn Alley she found herself surrounded by shady figures and shadier buildings. Holly rolled her eyes skyward wondering not for the first time why people of Knockturn Alley dressed that way. The average shopper went out of their way to dress like thieves in the Alley; they had no need to do so Holly knew, she'd been in the Alley herself multiple times and was well aware there were perfectly legitimate shops within; like the location Hagrid got his gardening supplies, and where she personally went for her dueling gear.

The Snatcher she was reading the memories of stalked through the Alley, and she followed idly noting the wanted posters hanging everywhere. Holly saw Ron and Hermione were still wanted in the memory, as were many of her school-mates that she knew had been Muggle-born. Her own name was out and about as well, her face looking down at her; it was covering every surface in the Alley as if people had forgotten what she looked like. The Snatcher bypassed these all and strode into a new shop that had been opened after she'd gone on the run. The shop was marked by a large death eater symbol, and Holly made a face at it before following the man in.

Inside was a restaurant looking area coupled with a bar, one wall was covered in wanted posters, and the Snatcher walked straight toward it to peruse. Holly personally allowed her eyes to scan and felt her heart sink as a pair of younger snatchers entered the building. Struggling between them was a young girl, perhaps sixteen, a Ravenclaw Muggleborn Holly realized. The girl was carted forward in tears begging to the pair she clearly recognized as her own upperclassmen to let her go. The girl went ignored as the snatchers exchanged a few words with the bartender before the girl was dragged to the back and out of Holly's sight.

Holly grimaced as she realized what this place was and yanked out of the Snatcher's memories.

"A bounty building," Ace surmised when she finished describing what she'd seen, "they're putting out wanted posters to people of 'Muggle' descent, then collecting them there. Unfortunately, there's no telling what happens to anyone captured after they've been brought there, I can imagine it's far from pleasant." Ace had a nasty taste in his mouth over it, he could make a few educated guesses, and each was worse than the last. Worse because Ace had seen some deplorable things in his own world and those were saved for actual criminals for the most part; Ace wondered however if Holly had any inkling of what he did.

Regardless he said: "Not exactly the big fish we're looking for though." He could make it work; if they followed up the chain one person to the next, they'd eventually end up with a sea-king. He knew she could handle Snatchers just fine, dodging them even while distracted. They were both frankly sleeping when it came to fights with the grunts, so a level up would give him a better idea of the scale for wizards and for Holly as well. Though ideally, he'd spar with her before they did anything too dangerous; such as, for example, destroying a bounty building where her enemies gathered.

"We could… we could save them? Destroy the building and…" she trailed off angrily, and it reminded him of Sabo, of Sabo's great desire to help people and yet being too weak, too young, and too alone to do much.

"They'd build another building," Ace countered her even as he started to plan around her suggestion, "and with magic, they'd do it quickly."

"I'll just destroy that one too." Holly's hand reached up and brushed the locket ever aware of the priceless item around her neck. If she was captured doing this then it might get stolen which would be beyond a disaster but- but that girl was sixteen, sixteen, she was only a year younger than Holly was. "I can't just leave people my age and younger too-" she couldn't finish, Holly didn't want to imagine what the Death Eater's had done to that girl and younger. She shook her head, sending her hair flying.

"Alright," Ace said, placing his hands on his waist, "a bounty place should be simple to break into, and the people that run it will have much more information than these lot." He jerked a thumb at the unconscious Snatchers. "They won't stand a chance against you, let alone me. We just need a disguise for you to get to this place; not one with magic though, they can probably see through that," he eyed her, "you ever tried dyeing your hair?"

Holly's eyes went a bit wide, she'd thought… why did she keep thinking Ace was going to ridicule her impulses and ideas? He worked with her, adjusted to match her, and covered her weaknesses without complaint. He hadn't judged her for not killing, had planned around what she wanted and needed. It was about time she worked with him in return and stopped assuming he was going to dismiss her like so many others.

"I'd like to spar before we go though," Ace continued, "to get an idea of your strength, speed, and weaknesses when you have a stronger opponent. Out of fairness, we'll call a spell going through me a point to you." He cracked his hands and neck, "fifty fights a day should do it."

"What?" Holly recoiled a bit as Ace stepped over a Snatcher toward her, "now?"

"No time like the present." Especially considering how little time he had left, "on the count of three. One-"

"Ace hold on what about the Snatchers-"

"Two."

"More could show up, and I'll have to clean the entire area of magic when we're done, it'll take forever-"

"One- GO!"

Holly wrenched her wand up, hurling a shield between herself and Ace aware now of how quickly he could move. A split second later Ace's fist cracked against it, and the entire glittering wall shuddered and gave way. Holly quickly re-estimated how much power she'd have to put into her shields to ensure they didn't collapse under Ace's influence before she started to chain attacks. From his speed, she knew it would be incredibly difficult to hit him, and she knew running from or dodging him was highly unlikely to work, he'd just catch her. Instead, she'd have to work on swiftly casting as many spells as she could in a wide arc to force him away from her since one hit was a point to her.

One spell coated the ground in ice, another started to layer wards directly around her, a third sent Ace twisting out of the way, and Holly didn't even pay attention to his state this time; she was focused on winning. On dueling someone worthy and powerful, on fighting with someone who challenged her as no one had since Dumbledore's death and everything changing. Lights flashed as Ace dodged between them- until the last one she cast, which he just took.

Ace skidded to a stop and swore. "Forgot I wasn't fire! Okay, let's go again that's a win for you." He retook his spot and started to countdown-

"What the hell does that mean 'forgot I wasn't fire,' what?!" she said before he got to 'two.'

"It's my devil-fruit power."

Holly snapped her fingers: "Okay that I remember, but you didn't say anything about fire, how does it work? What does it do?"

"It makes me fire, I can transform into it, I can breathe it, use it, live in it. Fire is me, and I'm fire." Ace explained to her loosely, his hand circling vaguely in the air.

"But you haven't used it here."

"Can't." He shook his wrist at her, and remembered a moment later that his chains didn't come with him to this world, "in prison they have these chains, sea-stone, they're used to prevent a devil-fruit user from using their abilities. I have… a couple of them." That was an understatement by a large margin, he was bogged down by them. "With them, I can't use my fire in any way."

"But you're made of fire." Holly, as always, went straight to the point, "isn't that like cutting off a part of you?"

Ace rubbed the back of his neck trying to hedge an answer, to not admit how bad it really was. In the end, Holly had been, as far as he knew, honest with him, so he was honest with her. "Yeah, it's… painful. I'm constantly cold, and it feels like someone cut me in half. But there's not much I can do about it while I'm wearing them… it's better here though, I can't quite feel it and the fire you have out at nights helps a lot."

Holly bit her lip as Ace stretched a bit to get ready to go again. She was stuck though, stuck on picturing someone blocking out her magic and forcing her to live like that; she couldn't imagine it. These sea-stone chains - which she realized Ace had mentioned before - sounded, for lack of a better word, terrible. It certainly explained why Ace sat so close to her camp and house-fire though. If he was made of flames, the source of it being so close had to be soothing. Like being magically drained and sitting on a ley-line. Though she wished she'd known earlier, Holly could alter the tent to leave a fire in Ace's room, and she could triple the temperature inside it as well. Holly always preferred the heat, and she'd purposely kept the tent cooler because Hermione and Ron both liked it cold, Ace it seemed was far more like her.

"Two, one-go!"

"Hey! That's a terrible count!" she hollered as Ace got right into her lacking guard and swatted her head calling his strike a win, though considering what he'd done to the snatchers with a similar blow, he was right to do so.

"Call it haki training," he grinned boyishly at her, "to learn observation I get to blind-fold you and throw rocks at your head until you learn to use haki instinctively."

"That _cannot_ be true."

"Oh-ho it is, Jozu loves training newbies because he gets to do it to them."

"Oh is that so? Three-two-one-go!" she called suddenly and hurled spells at Ace hoping to catch him off his guard; however Ace, unlike Holly, had haki, so he easily dodged. While Holly noted another name to the back of her mind, so far that was five Ace had or almost had dropped.

Holly hid a smile, Ace was beginning to relax around her.

A snatcher groaned and Ace casually trodded on his head, knocking him out again as they continued.

* * *

A woman strode through Diagon Alley with her head up and her posture confident. She glared down anyone who looked at her wrong or at all, and most that did quickly looked away. People avoided her eerie blue eyes that seemed unnatural in color, many were convinced they had to be fake, except they had made it past the wards placed around the Alley to remove glamors, illusions, and potions, so they had to be real. The woman flicked her brown hair back revealing her plain forehead as she glanced toward Knockturn Alley, her head tilted as if she was listening to someone before she strode down the street itself and out of sight. Several breathed out in relief having assumed she, like most of those that visited Diagon lately, was there because she'd wanted to join the dark lord. They had little idea that under the wig, the prescription contacts, and the makeup, their savior was standing right before them.

"Reminds me of home." Ace told Holly as he strode beside her through the Alley; he didn't bother avoiding anyone since Ace could go right through them and the fact that he did kept making Holly twitch. He, unlike Holly, could actually look around as much as he wanted, so he scanned the area watching for anyone paying Holly a little too much attention, which none were as of yet. Holly, however, had to keep her focus and confidence up to make it seem like she was another person entirely. For as she'd explained to Ace, generally in magical public areas she'd kept her head down and her hair on her forehead to hide her celebrity status; so when disguising her, they'd done the exact opposite. "Shady enough to be- the island where I'm from, though it's a bit more obviously downtrodden for the richer areas."

Ace glanced toward Holly and smirked when she made an aborted motion to wipe her eyes.

"That's horrible, and so are these." She muttered his way. The contacts had been an ordeal, requiring them to head into the Muggle world to get Holly a pair of prescription color contacts which they'd expedited to have as soon as possible. Holly instantly hated them, and Ace had physically held her eyes open to shove them in to disguise her distinct green eyes. "They're itchy." She whined.

"It's temporary." He teased even though he'd never worn them. He glanced away again amused at her, but still missing the now-familiar green shade of her eyes.

"There it is," Holly said as the building came into view.

Holly continued on not pausing as she made a straight line toward her destination. Ace meanwhile rushed forward to round the building looking for exits and then darted inside having found only one. Since he couldn't be seen and wasn't exactly corporeal, he was the perfect scout. Within he counted the number of people inside, each one they'd have to defeat as quickly as possible, so no one escaped, and no alarms were set off. Once that was done they'd have to discover what was in the back; he'd have to do it later though as Holly was just entering.

She strode in casually dropping a ward stone near the door to prevent apparition; Holly had spent most of the night building it according to one of Hermione's books. Then ignoring the brief looks she got, Holly moved toward the wanted board as if she had been there all the time. Ace moved opposite her to the far side of the room and a table that was out of sight of the others. In a swift strike, he knocked out the pair sitting there and lowered them to their table. Then he moved on as Holly plucked a poster off the wall and turned toward the room. Her first spell caught the bartender by surprise, he slumped over without warning. Following that two people at the back of the room hit the ground as Ace took them out before he launched over a table toward the front door.

All hell broke loose as Snatchers rushed to attack her, not a single one attempting to escape through the door Ace was guarding. Which gave him a front-row seat to the battle.

The coloring was wrong, her hair too light and her eyes too blue. But her smile, the way she lit up when she was dueling, that was the woman he was falling for. Ace watched Holly as she twisted and turned, dodging under spells in a way that he instantly recognized as his own. Their fifty battles for the last few days were helping her drastically when it came to physical fighting. Holly was now correctly dodging and occasionally going for the solar plexus and throat. Holly might not be using haki yet, but by the time he left, she would be-

_'By the time he left?'_

"Done," Holly called striding into the middle of the room. She flicked her wand casually behind her; a spell struck the wall, and every wanted poster there burst into flames, all but her own which was in her hand. Ace eagerly moved forward and stole it from her fingers curious to see it in closer detail. The image they had of Holly was recent, it had been taken when she'd been leaving Hogwarts for the last time in her sixth year. At the time Luna had amused her and Holly had been between sorrowful over Dumbledore, pensive over her impending death, and slightly smiling because of Luna. It was, Ace thought, a perfect wanted poster.

Teasingly Ace lifted the picture and wiggled it in front of her face: "I do believe I was worth more, but this is certainly a hefty first bounty." Truthfully Ace wasn't sure of the conversion rates from Galleons to Beri, so in all reality, she could be worth anything from a typical East Blue pirate to a yonko.

Holly gave a laugh as her eyes crinkled attractively; her hand reached up as she grabbed playfully at the poster which Ace yanked out of her range. Taller than her he rolled up the picture and then stuffed it into his pants pocket. "I'm keeping it." He declared having no idea if he could or not.

"Ace!" Holly grabbed for it again, forgetting where she was. He did that to her, made her forget how tense the situation was. He made her forget she had been alone, that she was going to die, that the locket was constantly draining at her. Ace made her forget about the war, and it was because of that reason alone that she kept thinking the words: _'I want, I want, I want.'_

But life was never that easy, and they remembered what they had to do, and they both focused up. Neither of them needed to speak as they moved toward the back door Holly had seen in the memory. Holly didn't complain or even mention it as Ace automatically took point and stuck his head through the back-door. He ghosted straight through it after a moment, and Holly opened it to follow. The door itself led to a staircase, and soundlessly they descended them, occasionally glancing at each other.

In the basement, they found a hallway with five rooms. Wordlessly Ace and Holly split up, Ace took the left and Holly the right. Ace stuck his head in the first door as Holly opened another and vanished within. The first room Ace discovered was a storage room for the bar and after a quick glance, and resisting his urge to eat everything, he moved on. The next room had him enter it fully once he recognized what it was. A table in the middle of the room with shackles on the armrests. Blood across the table, the floor, the wall behind, and the chains, most was dried but some was unfortunately fresh. It was an interrogation room, and it had been used often. Unfortunately Ace knew then that the people who had been brought here were long gone and the chances they were alive were slim.

Holly would be devastated.

Wishing not for the first time he could use his fire to burn the whole place down Ace left to check the last of his rooms, which was empty. Ace then went for the left wondering why only one of the doors on the right had been opened. "Holly?" he called as he approached, had she found something?

Silence met his question.

His stomach sank, Ace instantly pictured the worst as he sprinted forward. He flew around the corner, his hand on the door and his hair in his face, to look inside. Ace found Holly beside a desk looking at some papers. All color had vanished from her face, her hands shook, and she didn't so much as twitch when he called her name.

"Holly?" He stepped forward, noting the papers on the table spread out haphazardly. Each was a folder on someone who had been through the bounty building, they each had a picture of the person in the interrogation room Ace had seen. Feeling his gut sink Ace leaned up and peered at the papers in Holly's hands and at the names there. He sucked in a sharp breath; he didn't need to see past the first page to recognize them. Their images was all over the room he slept in, their faces and stories were things he'd heard about often when it came to Holly. Their names were often on her lips, and signs of their presence were all over the tent itself.

Right there before them both were the bruised moving faces of Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger.


	6. Chapter 6

"Considering she's never been camping before in her life; the bloody woman should have reused some of the campsites we brought her too!" Ron grumbled as he paced in the forest clearing he and Hermione were standing in. Nearby Hermione knelt on a transfigured carpet with a detailed map in her hands, with a furrowed brow she inspected the map and muttered to herself. Personally, Hermione agreed with what Ron had said. Yet after a dozen campsites visited and tagged so they'd know if Holly camped there, they were still coming up empty. Which unfortunately meant locating Holly was becoming extremely difficult.

The past few months had not been kind to Hermione and Ron, not since the very moment Ron apparated in an uncontrolled rage. The instant Ron landed away from the girls, he realized his mistake; the reason for his twisted thoughts and emotions had been the locket.

Ron had intended to go right back when Hermione landed beside him, tracking his magic to the location he'd chosen to get away from them. They'd stared at each other, continuously drawn in a way neither of them could explain. Then Ron had blurted out a desperate apology, and Hermione had thrown herself into his arms, forgiving him for what he'd been unable to defend himself from. Ron did not have occlumency, he had no defenses against the Horcrux's poison, and his more emotional mind, unlike opposed to Hermione's, had ensured he'd been corrupted quickly.

With Hermione in his arms, Ron had confessed his biggest fear that he'd messed up for the last time, that this time Holly wouldn't forgive him. And Ron honestly didn't believe he deserved forgiveness, not that time. He'd abandoned Holly in the middle of a war, there was no going back from that he thought.

Hermione took him by the arms and leaned back with a watery smiled before she said: "Oh Ron! It's okay. Holly sent me to get you. She knows what the locket was doing, and she doesn't blame you. Now, let's go back to her." As she spoke, Ron was not comforted. He'd always been the emotional one in the group and frankly, understood his emotions far better than the girls. Which often meant Ron knew what the girls felt before they did. Which is why he understood immediately what Holly had done.

By the time they arrived back at the campsite, Holly in the tent was gone and Holly's magical signature had been wiped from the area. She had fled ensuring that they could not follow even if they wanted to. Ron and Hermione had certainly tried regardless of that. They'd spent the next fourth months scouring the countryside for her. Occasionally they stayed with Bill and Fleur in their home and sometimes pitched with a muggle tent that Hermione had been enchanting. Otherwise, they grew closer, though as Bill would say, perhaps too close.

Ron and Hermione's relationship had built, and they had realized their feelings for each other, which was positive. However, trapped in a small muggle tent for months on end in the middle of a war, after seeing no one but each other for that long, and after worrying endlessly about Holly the entire time; a toll had been taken out of their patience.

Eventually, something had to give. Ron and Hermione's souls screamed of stress, their bags had bags, their bodies were growing weaker and weaker with the lack of food. And the constant wariness of the war and the knowledge of the deaths building up around them hit them harder every day. Then it happened; an explosion built from being too close to each other, a fight growing from the stress and the fear, and a single mistake.

"Oh god." Hermione suddenly breathed as she stared down at the map, "no no no no!" she'd finally put two and two together. It had bothered her endlessly for the last few months, why had Holly sent them away? Why had she fled without a word? Why Holly had kept trying to escape them after turning seventeen? Hermione finally realized the truth, about the connection, about Holly's silence and anguish when Dumbledore had left them, the facts she must have already known-

"What," Ron asked, stopping his pacing to stand beside Hermione.

"It's the only thing that makes sense! The reason she chased us off Ron! Holly must know! She knows!"

"Knows what?"

"She's a Horcrux…" Hermione pressed her hand to her mouth, "her scar, the connection! Holly is a Horcrux. That's the reason she can see Voldemort's memories, the reason occlumency doesn't work on her dreams, it's why she saw Nagini when it attacked your dad. They're both living Horcruxes!"

"No," Ron said firmly taking a step away from his girlfriend, "no, because if that's true, the reason she left is-"

"She's going to kill herself." Hermione felt her eyes burn as she staggered away from her map and from Ron, "she probably already has."

"NO!" he fisted his hands and roared out the word, "How could you say that! Holly wouldn't just kill herself!" His distant mind screamed denials. Holly still had things to do; she wouldn't do it until the locket, and the other Horcruxes were destroyed. Holly was the type of individual who would not leave a job unfinished. She'd be the last one to go, the last Horcrux, and they'd-

"Of course she would!" Hermione's mind worked ever on, realizing those little things and those huge hints that everything, everything had been a giant set-up. A trap designed to kill Holly. "She's a self-sacrificing moron, and it's Dumbledore's bloody fault! All our lives he's been training her to do exactly this! Don't you think it's a little suspicious that he kept sending Holly back to those Muggles and rewarding us for risking our damn lives year after year!"

"Dumbledore wouldn't-"

"He did!" Hermione grabbed her head, "he did! Everything has been leading up to this. The stone in first year that just so happened to be guarded by traps an eleven-year-old could get through. The basilisk, how had it taken us to figure out the beast was a snake and in the bathroom! Someone should have asked Myrtle years ago she was right there! And Sirius, Dumbledore was the one who performed the Fidilous charm, how did he not know the secret keeper was swapped!" she was growing increasingly panicked, "everything was for this, he knew. He's been twisting Holly's life and our lives to ensure this happened!"

"Hermione, not everything is a conspiracy! Dumbledore is a great man, and he loved Holly! He wouldn't do this-"

"HE DID! He wanted Holly dead, wanted the Horcrux dead. Anything to kill-

"-NO WAIT-"

"-Voldemort!" Their eyes flew wide in horror, and cracks from snatchers sounded around them, as they were out-numbered in an instant and forced to flee.

* * *

"Holly." Ace stepped toward her and forcefully put his hands on the folders. He understood what she was thinking, what was going through her head at that moment, he'd done it himself countless times. He blamed himself, for Sabo and for Thatch, for every crew member that died at the sea. He understood, he did, which meant he knew how to prioritize. He knew when to feel, and when to fight tooth and nail to ensure the people he cared about were given the opportunity to live. It had been why he'd ran for Marco when he'd found Thatch, instead of after Thatch's killer, until he'd known without a doubt that Thatch wasn't going to make it.

Black rushed up Ace's hands as he snatched the folder from Holly's limp fingers. Without it in her direct sights, she sank to the ground staring at her empty hands with a blank emotionless gaze. Ace temporarily left her there as he hurriedly flipped through the parchments to find the information he needed. It was possible, very possible, that Ron and Hermione were not yet dead. And it there was a chance he had to take it for the good of Holly's sanity and his own future.

Ace's teeth ground together, where was it, where was it? A symbol, a single sign- please let her siblings be alive; there! "Holly!" he slammed the papers together and squatted beside her, "Holly! Who are the Malfoy's?"

"My fault- Ron and Hermione are- no no no no- I sent them away- my fault, I sent them away, I did that, they're- they're- my fault, I…"

"HOLLY!" Ace dropped the folder and slapped his hands on each side of her face and wrenched her chin up to force her to look at him, "they might be alive, but they won't be so for long, you need to focus and shove that shit back. Focus on me, and tell me who the Malfoy's are!"

Her eyes might have cleared slightly at his words. It was hard to tell with those damnable blue contacts which he was profoundly regretting at that moment. "The- the Malfoy's… that's, that's Draco, Lucius and… and Narcissa. They're death eaters, Draco… he let them into the school, Dumbledore died because of him… him and Snape-"

He shook her to refocus her, "can you find them?"

She lifted her head more, and Ace saw a green glow grow to life behind the blue of her contacts. As Holly locked her gaze with his and snarled out a furious and hissing: "Yes."

She didn't feel it when the locket heated up victoriously, or when it started to burn. It's voice hissed in the back of her head egging her on, twisting her fear into something far more violent and panicked to get back to its true owner-

"Lead the way."

Holly and Ace stood together, he snatched the folders from the table and collected them together in a rush. He knew if Holly were more focused, she'd want to bring them to ensure everyone who passed through the building was saved and he had a feeling if he left them they'd permanently lose that information. Ace had guessed right when they reached the stairs, and Holly hurled a bright red spell behind them. Glancing back he witnessed the interrogation room, and the office burst into flames, Holly was burning the building down as he'd desired to do already. Ace smirked, he basked in the familiar heat not wondering if he could be burned by flames while wearing sea-stone, and he followed Holly up the stairs toward the bar area.

She strode ahead of him like a warrior on a warpath. Holly had accepted her furious mission and was going to destroy anything in her way. Ace watched her in quiet awe, wondering what she'd look like sailing a ship. What Holly would look like free of the pressures of war on her shoulders. When she could just do and enjoy as a pirate would. He had a feeling it would be a glorious image matching the one she held right then.

Holly made a straight line for the bartender and didn't waste a moment yanking up the man's face and forcing herself into his mind. She cast the spell without a single word, without even her wand in her hand and proved then that she didn't need it. Ace had already suspected that was the case, that the stick was a tool and nothing more, now he had his proof. However, that wasn't the time to talk about it or to reveal he knew she could use magic without it. That bit of information he'd still hold close, for as must as he was beginning to believe this was real, he was still unwilling to put his family's life on that belief.

Regardless as Ace waited for her to scour the man's mind for the information they needed, he gave a considering look around the bar. There were half a dozen people laid out, stunned and unconscious for the extended future. There was also smoke already escaping the basement as the flames below built, and should he and Holly leave these people where they were, they'd be soon be burning alive.

As he'd told Holly several times already, he was a pirate, one that controlled the power of fire. He'd killed before; he'd burnt someone alive before, he couldn't have helped it considering he was made of flames. Still, he wasn't entirely indifferent to all these people dying, but Holly would be the exact opposite of apathetic. When she was calmer, when she realized what she'd done, the knowledge would hurt her. So clicking his teeth together, Ace strode across the bar and started to drag, carry, and cart the snatchers out of the building where he dumped them in a heap. No one so much as blinked an eye as the people moved past by an invisible force, assuming automatically it was a spell.

Finishing with his self-assumed mission, one that resulted in a couple of strangers receiving a few broken bones and noses - which Ace might have purposely ensured - Ace turned to Holly's side just as she yanked her mind from the bar-tenders head.

"Two days ago," she told him, "they were brought in two days ago and delivered to the Malfoy's manor yesterday, and I know exactly where that is now." She straightened as fire licked at the back door and smoke billowed overhead.

"Then what are we waiting for?" he offered his hand to Holly. She lifted her head and suddenly reached up and wrenched the wig off her head, he watched her pull out the contacts in her eyes with minimal success, it ruined the badass image she was throwing off and made him chuckle. Then she returned her glasses to her eyes and swiped away the makeup on her forehead, smearing it slightly into her hair. Finally, she offered her make-up covered hand toward him, grasping it firmly.

"Let's do it." She stated, and together they twisted away with a crack.

* * *

The Malfoy Manor was extravagant and as obnoxious as the building Sabo's family had lived in. The building itself was the most definite sign that even in another world, the rich like to show off and dismiss the poor. According to Holly, it used to have white columns, too many windows to count, an extensive back yard with a maze of hedges - that made Holly beyond twitchy, a crystal clear pool, and honest to god peacocks running around. Now however much of that was marred by Voldemort's presence in the Malfoy home during the previous year.

"This is something out of a horror story," Ace muttered. The hedges were growing out of control twisting around them like grasping arms, the pristine white of the manor was blackened by spell damage, the peacocks were nothing more than rotting corpses, and the pond had a body in it that Ace did not want to see more detail of. The area was a disaster and did not resemble its former looks at all.

"Malfoy, err… Draco, he used to brag about this place all the time. By the time I was twelve, I could probably describe it better than I could my own house." She carefully slammed her heel into a vine attempting to grab her. A similar plant had been something she'd had considerable trouble with in her fourth year, it had tied her up and nearly choked her to death before she'd escaped. Now however Holly had no problems with something so simple. It was true in the end, the twi-wizard tournament had not been intended for a fourteen-year-old. "By the time we were sixteen, he stopped talking about it entirely." Holly rolled her eyes skyward, "I told Hermione and Ron that was suspicious, and I told the Order that Vo- you-know-who and the death eaters had to be staying there. But no one believed me about it."

Ace snatched out his hand and snatched a vine charging toward Holly's head and ripped it in half: "Why haven't we checked this location for the sea-king then?"

Holly made a face, once again she'd been given the opportunity to tell Ace about the Horcruxes, and yet she knew she absolutely could not. She dared not speak of them around this place, and even if she was beginning to trust Ace with their knowledge and why they had to be destroyed before Voldemort, she was still heavily hesitating.

Not looking Ace's way, Holly hedged her answer a bit: "He's got control of the magical world now, beyond a few bits of resistance; there's little reason to remain at the Malfoy Manor when he could live anywhere he wanted." Which was true, she was reasonably certain Voldemort was not at Malfoy manor.

Ace hummed a non-committal response to that loosely accepting it, if he were an evil overlord bent on mass-murder he'd probably have his own place too.

They walked passed a break in the hedges, through the vines was a small pale body with its throat slit. Holly paused, giving it a saddened expression.

"What is that?" Ace whispered, trying to give the deceased creature some respect as he spotted it as well. Ace had seen strange being all over the Grand-Line and knew not to judge appearance, anything could be intelligent enough to take offense, but he'd never seen anything quite like it.

"A house-elf." Holly stepped forward and grabbed the vines, yanking them apart so she could step through. She could have used magic, but Holly wasn't sure if there were any wards on the property to track magic use and she'd rather get in and out of the manor without being noticed. "They're servants to wizards, slaves really depending on who owns them." Kneeling beside the too-small body, Holly reached up and closed its tennis-ball sized eyes. It was a recent death, the poor thing had bled out, leaving behind a long bloodied trail while trying to find a quiet place to die. "I wonder if Dobby knew him…" she immediately made a face as she spoke, she'd forgotten about Dobby in her panic, he could have helped her and Ace sneak in and find the manor.

"Who?" Ace squatted beside the 'elf' and wished he had a bit of flame to use. He'd like to give the creature a proper burial, but they didn't have time to dig a hole, cremation would have been far faster and still respectful.

"Well, Dobby was the elf attempting to warn me about the basilisk, I mentioned it before right?"

"I vaguely remember that." And the enormous scar marking her upper arm.

"So, Lucius Malfoy was his owner, and he crooked up an actual 'plot' with a diary-" There was her in to tell Ace about Horcruxes once more, "-which possessed a girl at school, and unleashed the bloody thing. Long story short, I tricked Malfoy into releasing Dobby, and he's been eternally loyal to me since then. In retrospect, I probably could have asked him to bring us here."

Ace flapped a dismissive hand as they continued on their path, leaving the small creature behind. "We made it here, it doesn't matter how."

"I suppose."

They rounded a corner while keeping the building in sight and paused; an enormous snake lay in the middle of the overgrown path. For a moment Holly's heart jumped, not because of it's size or danger, but rather because for a single moment, she thought it was Nagini which would have been extremely lucky. Nagini, she knew, was a Horcrux, and the creature was something she'd eventually have to kill. Unfortunately, this was a regular snake. To Ace used to the snakes of the Grand-line and Dawn island, and to Holly used to Nagini and a basilisk, it was a bit… boring.

The snake upon noticing them attacked. It struck out toward the single visible individual before it, snapping at Holly's head in response to being startled. Ace snapped out his hand instantly aware Holly wasn't nearly as fast as he was and might not be able to avoid the strike. His fingers locked around the beasts head and he yanked it away from her ready to kill and eat it. When Holly started to hiss.

Ace shot her a surprised look that grew intrigued when the snake started to hiss at her in return.

"You speak snake?" he asked incredulously. That was perfect, Haruta was terrified of snakes, he could already see the pranking material.

"An unfortunate side effect," Holly grumbled slipping out of parseltongue for a moment, she was getting better at telling which language she was speaking lately. Holly, however, was unaware of the large hint she'd just given Ace, a sentence he'd use later when all the small comments came together to make a clear picture. Instead, she was focused on bribing the snake into giving her information. Then, when that failed, threatening its death, which went over better, for her.

Ace stood silently by as Holly had a full conversation with a snake, it was as entertaining to him as Luffy attempting to communicate with a group of monkeys after Sabo tricked him, or when Namur had spoken to fish trying to convince them to offer themselves up for dinner. When the conversation ended, Holly nodded and explained what had been talked about, giving him information about the situation, from a snake.

"Hermione and Ron are in there, but so are the Malfoy's and Bellatrix. They've called you-don't-know-who though, so we need to be fast. They're dead the moment he arrives."

"Or he is." Ace commented reeling back his arm and hurling the snake away from them at full strength, figuring they were done with it, "we could always just kill him now?"

There it was again, Holly grimaced and tried to change the subject once more. Holly couldn't tell him the truth, she couldn't tell Ace that she couldn't fight Voldemort until the Horcruxes were destroyed, nor could Holly tell him she wouldn't survive the fight either. Ace didn't know that he'd be free and back in his world permanently before that battle occurred.

"Maybe." Holly said, feeling guilty as she avoided telling him again about the truth, "let's get in there."

Holly strode forward toward the building, eying it to distract herself, she didn't turn to look back at Ace who took a moment to watch her. His suspicions about her were growing once more because he knew now that she was hiding something from him. Holly was avoiding fighting Voldemort that was plain; Ace knew without a doubt that she was, what he didn't know was why. Ace wanted to say it was because his original theory was correct. If this were a story designed by a marine, the idea would be to keep him inside it, and Voldemort's death would end the war and therefore end the story. In reality however, as much as Ace wanted to believe that theory, he also didn't. He was slowly beginning to trust in Holly, and he knew her avoidance of Voldemort might be something as simple as fear.

He'd have to wait and see.

"Ace, can you give me a boost?"

Ace stepped forward, joining Holly beside the manor as she peered up at a window above them. "Sure," he said, as he stood beside the window itself and linked his fingers together. Holly gave him a smile, the one that made his stomach twist with nervous energy and made him want, and she rushed toward him. Holly's booted heel hit his hands, and Ace hurled her upward. Her fingers caught the end of the window, and she boosted herself up with pure arm strength before she opened the window and slipped inside.

Eying the distance himself Ace gave himself a small space to run, he could handle the jump without problem he knew, and he charged ready to launch up and grab the windowsill to pull himself in; when Holly reached out her hand and caught his own. They paused there, Ace holding the window and her hand, Holly leaning out of it while bracing against the inside so she didn't fall out. Both of them thought it at that moment, thought of the desire and want. They wanted to trust, they wanted to explore what was before them, they wanted. Holly wanted to lean forward and kiss him, Ace was already leaning toward her in the same mind.

The moment broke when Holly winced, not from Ace's weight, but from the locket at her neck searing into her skin causing her to flinch. Seeing it, Ace assumed it was because of his weight and hurried to climb into the window. He moved swiftly, and Holly didn't have the time to back up; they ended up pressed right up against each other, almost chest to chest as Ace looked down and Holly up.

"We… we should go find them." Holly managed to say as she backed off and turned around. Her hand automatically reached up, rubbing her chest to alleviate the burn as a pair of ghosts groaned in disappointment. "We need to find the basement, it has a dungeon where they should be. But I'm not sure which door leads down there. So-" she glanced back at Ace who was staring at her chest intensely, and she blushed rushing to turn around again. "So… err… er- let's try um… every door we can… find, yeah." She sped walked away.

Ace caught up quickly his eyes lingering on her neck where he could only just make out the chain of the locket he knew she wore under her clothes. The same Locket that continued to cut into her neck, the one that was causing her pain and yet she still wore the damned thing. Why? Why did she do it? What was it's importance?

"So we open every door, and fuck up anyone who sees it." Ace gave Holly a thumbs up as she opened the door of the office they ended up in to reveal a long hallway.

"Watch out for the paintings too, they can actually communicate with the Malfoy's," Holly added spotting one right off the bat, which was thankfully empty.

"Can do."

Together they left the room heading to the right. Every door Ace and Holly passed, they opened, and peered inside. Quickly they grew annoyed by how large the building actually was. There were rooms upon rooms, dining rooms by the dozens, offices, bedrooms, two kitchens, entrance rooms, and beyond. But there was no way to the basement. And as they searched on, two figures floated behind them debating heavily on what to do.

_"We need her to duel the kid!"_

_"I know but think about who is around right now. If we do this wrong, our fawn will end up facing Voldemort instead and-"_

_"We have to take the chance, she needs that wand Prongs, without it she's dead."_

_"I… I know… I know. Fine, let's do it."_

Ace and Holly had found another dining room when it happened. In the middle of the hallway lay an entire suit of armor, and as they passed it, the whole thing collapsed. They both froze in surprise, giving each other a look in blame for the incident even though Holly had been nowhere near it and Ace couldn't have touched it without actively using haki.

"What did you do?" Holly gasped in alarm.

"I'm not using haki, it had to be your magic."

"Magic doesn't do that!" No, that was a lie, it did around her. But why would that strange magic want them discovered-

"Potter?" Holly and Ace spun on the spot. Behind them stood Draco Malfoy looking pale, haggard, and frankly more sickly than he had during their sixth year, and he wore an expression Holly couldn't begin to read. Oddly enough, Holly's first thought was to wonder why Draco was in the manor, he should have been in Hogwarts for his last year. It seemed she truly had lost track of time. "What are you doing _here_?" Draco didn't act as though he was furious about her appearance, but rather… worried that she was there at all?

"Ah, good a guide, think he'll show us to the dungeon? We are guests, after all." Ace said causing Holly to snort quite randomly in Draco's eyes.

"You idiot! You need to leave-"

A form grew from behind him, a mess of curls, haunted purple eyes and a crazed expression. Bellatrix Lestrange burst into delighted cackles as she screamed out a delighted: "Itty Bitty Potter!"

"Fu-" Holly caught herself using Ace's swear as she turned on her heel, and bolted. There was little reason for it, Holly likely could have handled Bellatrix in a duel on top of Draco, especially with Ace assisting her. But something about the woman unsettled Holly's instincts, just as being chased made her mind panic. A crash sounded as Bellatrix launched over the fallen suit of armor to give chase, and all control left her.

_"You idiot!"_

_"I didn't know the bitch was that close!"_

"Holly!" Ace watched her flee, and the bitch give chase, he swore and went to follow her when the blond jerked. Ace gave the man a look as his eyes darted toward a nearby door, one they hadn't yet checked. Draco reminded Ace that he and Holly still needed to find Ron and Hermione, and now that they had been discovered that would become more difficult. Especially if Voldemort was called.

He'd have to find them. But first, he could deal with the blond

Smirking to himself, Ace charged toward the man, he kicked the wall and threw all his weight into his fist to knock out the blond in one single strike- and something slammed into his solar plexus. Ace choked losing all the air in his lungs as he hit the ground hard. He knocked into the suit of armor and sent pieces in every direction in a cacophony of noise. Ace wheezed out of breath as he tried to regain his breathing from the sudden and violent strike, and wrenched open his watery eyes as he sought out the source of the blow.

Draco was gone, in his place was a shadowy figure hovering above Ace with lanky black hair and an apologetic smile. Ace sneered in its direction: "who the bloody-" it vanished like the wind before he finished his sentence leaving Ace alone in the hallway. "…what?" he pushed himself up and waved a hand where it had been, nothing was there, but the air was chilled, like- " a ghost?" his eyes narrowed recalling Holly's theory about why he was there, but if it was a ghost and was trying to help them why had it stopped him from knocking out the enemy?

What was happening to him?

Ace swore and ignored it as a distant crash, and a cackle sounded. He didn't have the time for it, he didn't have the time for anything really. Ace had to find the dungeon, get Holly's friends out, then return to Holly's side to deal with the insane woman. He strode away, this time, toward the door the blond had been eying before everything occurred.

At the same time, Holly was two rooms over as she fled into the kitchen as she threw spells behind her at a frantic rate. She dove through doorways, over couches, behind chairs, and passed the destroyed remains of furniture as Bellatrix missed her over again and again. Had she been calmer Holly might have noticed that Bellatrix hadn't once managed to hit her, and her dodging had grown in leaps and bounds because of the training she was doing with Ace. But Holly was anything but calm.

Bellatrix dueled without a pattern, and that was precisely what made her so dangerous. She dueled with force, power, and madness. Throwing spells you'd never expect and others you'd have no idea how to defend against. Someone like McGonagall or Hermione who dueled with focused logic could never handle an opponent like Bellatrix. Only someone who fought with instinct, who could adapt in an instant could handle her. Holly was the sort of duelist who could handle it, her only weakness being her inability to dodge was already being fixed by Ace's training. Unfortunately, while she was panicking as she was, Holly would have no chance.

Holly sprinted into a large music room with only one entrance and exit, she skidded to a stop throwing her weight to the side to avoid the sickly looking spell that weaved past her head. She stared at Bellatrix, who had stopped in the doorway and was laughing.

The wards shook around her, twisting around the house until the magic involved was physically visible in the air. Colors danced as the air grew heavy, and an almost smog-like effect started to twist into being. Magic so black it could be seen wrapped around her body and the locket on Holly's neck burned as she gave a pained cry. Her free hand rushed upward and grabbed her scar as it burst open and she screamed-

"He's come." Bellatrix sang with glee.

Voldemort had arrived.

Ace froze on the steps toward the dungeon when power fell over the building. It was like conquerors haki drowning out everything and making a weaker individual freeze in terror. But it was not at the strength Ace was used to. He had felt Whitebeard's haki on several occasions, casual use of which had knocked out many of their own number and every marine on an attacking ship. Few had kept their feet, let alone their consciousness. Only the commanders had remained up, and of those only Ace, Jozu, and Marco had been unruffled by it.

Voldemort's magic was substantially similar to conquerors haki, but it was unpracticed, it was weak in comparison to Edward Newgate, and Ace sensing it for the first time was able to accurately sort Voldemort in a proper strength level. Voldemort, Ace decided, was akin to his own level of strength.

Paused on the stairs, Ace made a few realizations. One, Holly had the power to match Voldemort but lacked the experience. Ace knew from their training that Holly had the potential to handle weak opponents with a flick of her wrist, but not the finesse needed to fight someone of equal or greatest strength to herself. Holly was learning but wasn't there yet, and that thought led him to his second realization. Holly was not yet a match for Voldemort in a one on one fight, just as she wasn't a match to Ace either. Therefore, at three, Ace had to be the one to kill Voldemort, before Voldemort killed Holly.

It was no wonder she was avoiding the fight, she wouldn't currently survive it.

Holly would die-

Ace was taking a step up the stairs, preparing to abandon her friends in an instant, was ready to rush to her side- when he heard a childish whimper from below followed by a comforting whisper. His teeth ground together as he hovered between paths, up or down, Holly or the prisoners. Ace swore and turned once more to head downward, he had to believe she could handle it, that she'd survived long enough for him to free her friends.

He hit the bottom step and strode toward the wooden door before him. Black raced up his arm as he swung his fist back, and in a single brutal move, Ace pulverized the door. Wood splitters went through him and bounced off the ground. And as the dust cleared Ace triple checked the people he needed to rescue were in the dungeon itself. In the large basement area were several people, an aged man with wispy hair, a girl with platinum blond hair and odd eyes that were locked right on his own, and the huddled forms of Ronald Weasley, and Hermione Granger.

The group was bruised, they were hagged, starved, and tortured. But they were alive.

The girl with the odd eyes smiled as Ace scanned them, and without reason, she suddenly said: "See Ron, I told you, the 'D' wouldn't leave us down here. They're kind people… or most of them are." Ace recoiled slightly as she grinned his way with a smile that had a tooth missing, the last part of her sentence echoed unpleasantly in his ears and soured his mouth. He could hear it, a familiar laugh that curled his lip.

"You know," The girl continued, "it's not pyrite this place."

"Luna what are you talking about-"

"Hermione, you need to stand, the door is opened I think-"

A pained scream cut them all off. It bounced along the walls and rattled against Ace's eardrums- he was out of the dungeon and flying up the stairs toward Holly before his mind had even realized his body had moved.

Ace passed through walls as if they were minor inconveniences, he slid through furniture without care and sprinted until he found himself in a large music room. A grand piano, a harp, and countless other instruments left for decor rather than use layered in the room in splintered heaps. Huge gaping holes were missing from the walls. And Holly, his Holly, was on her hands and knees in the middle of the room while Voldemort himself stood over her.

Holly spat out the iron taste in her mouth as she stared at the floor below her, the floor splattered with her blood and the wood chips from the wand she'd called her own. The wand made from her namesake and the creature that had saved her life had been shattered; destroyed like the hope Holly had of living another day. Her battle with Voldemort had happened too soon. Above her death loomed almost poetically, the Horcrux within her would be destroyed by Voldemort's own hand. It was how Dumbledore had designed it, how he wanted it to happen, how it should have from the prophecies words.

Her time had come, the moment Voldemort arrived at Malfoy Manor she'd known. She'd hoped he wouldn't come, hoped she could have put it off. Hoped that she could have kept the Malfoy's and Bellatrix busy long enough to save Ron and Hermione and avoid Voldemort entirely. Holly was a fool. She knew what hope got her, nothing. It hadn't freed her from her cupboard or her relatives, hadn't saved Sirius, Cedric, Hedwig, or Moody. It hadn't helped her escape her destiny at all.

She was a dead woman walking, living on borrowed time that had cost countless people their lives. If not for her existence Dumbledore would have already found the Horcruxes and ended the war and all the people now dead would be alive. Holly needed to die, she knew it, knew it, knew it-

And Holly couldn't breathe from the fear of it. It burned like the locket searing a hole in her chest desperate to get back to its creator. It burned like the way her hands dug into the floor and shards of wood under her palms. The acceptance of her face was a bald-faced lie she told herself. The resolve to do what was needed, the determination to ensure the job was done, it was bullshit. Holly didn't want to die.

It was why she'd worked so hard to repair the holes in her defense with Ace. Why she'd accepted his company so quickly. Why she worked every night to figure out that damned Horcrux and how she could live through its removal. She wasn't ready- she wasn't! But she had to, it was her destiny, her fate etched into being before she'd even taken her first breath. She had to die but-

_"You need to focus and shove that shit back!"_

He'd changed her mind without even doing anything, changed everything by showing her what? Nothing? He'd changed her entire life, and she couldn't describe how.

She didn't want to die and it was entirely Ace's fault.

Ace froze, seeing Holly lift her head, as she lifted her eyes from the floor, froze as blood dripped from Holly's mouth where her tooth had gone straight through her lip. Bruises were forming along her body, and her arms shook as though she'd been running a week-long marathon. As Ace arrived, the spell making her scream ended as the snake-faced beast laughed and laughed as she struggled to just lift herself off her knees.

Red.

Red as the fire he was made from, red as the vest Luffy wore, red like the anger dancing at the surface all through his childhood.

Fury burned through him-

"Now, you die." Voldemort taunted, as the ice white wand he held lit up a sickly dangerous green- '_watch out for the green one though, it's a one-hit kill, and I have no idea if it will actually kill you or not. The words are-'_

"Avada-"

"NO!"

_"HOLLY DODGE!"_

_"PUP-"_

"-Kedavra-"

A freckled, black coated form tackled Holly from the side sending them careening from the spot. Where she had just been laying, a green spell splashed as it missed her and her savior by a hair's breadth. Holly's head cracked against the ground, as Ace rolled them until his back hit the wall where he landed on top of Holly, his arms wrapped protectively around her middle. Holly had her eyes pinned closed as she pressed her head to Ace's chest, her body shook, and her hands grasped at his shoulders since he wore no shirt for her to clutch. Ace was the opposite, his eyes were wide as he stared at the dispelling green magic on the spot Holly had just been laying.

She'd been that close to death, that close to leaving him. If he had wasted a single second, if he'd hesitated a moment, then Holly would be dead, and he'd be alone trapped in the darkness again. His fingers flexed on her back as he exhaled a shaky breath while he cursed his slow realization. He actually cared, and yet he'd been telling himself again and again that he didn't, that he could just leave her without looking back. Gods above, he was doomed.

Voldemort turned toward them both, seeing Holly alone and his wand lifted again, a sneer among his lipless mouth. Ace growled and quickly retook his feet, dragging Holly along with him.

"Holly, we're not in the clear yet. Focus." Ace demanded of her even as he shoved her protectively behind him. His free hand cracked as he wondered if he could handle Voldemort; ordinarily, it would be fine, but in this world, he didn't have his fire. And while Ace couldn't be seen, he was well aware Voldemort would be actively attacking Holly, making things complicated for him.

"My wand…" Holly was reeling. She had no idea what she was doing, no idea what she should do. Holly had to die, she knew that but- but she didn't want to, she was scared, and she had unfinished business. She wasn't ready-

"Please," Ace scoffed at her just as he'd done countless times before while they dueled; it snapped her into that mindset, a familiar one that helped her to focus, "you don't need that damned thing to fight," there was an opportunity there Ace realized, if she focused on a secondary opponent- "but… if you insist. You could always steal one." He wiggled his brows at Holly and shot a look toward a nervous Draco standing beside his parents at the side of the room. "I'll get the big guy." He'd have to, there was no other option, Holly was not in the right mindset for this.

Holly followed his gaze to Draco, heard Voldemort distantly taunting her. But it no longer held the same effect, this too she blamed on Ace… or thanked him she reasoned. "Okay."

They stepped forward together, charged together. Holly with full intentions of diving past Voldemort toward Draco, while Ace on covering her and snatching hold of that nasty little stick between Voldemort's fingers. In a moment, Ace had his hand up as he placed himself between Holly and Voldemort, as he deflected a sickly looking spell with haki that Voldemort directed toward his girl. Ace saw the shock appear on Voldemort's face and cackled while Holly rocketed past. She wrenched Draco's wand brutally from his fingers and used it to attack him and his parents before they reacted or tried to attack her. At the same time, Ace deflected three more spells and wished deeply he could have taunted the snake-faced freak of a man.

Ace couldn't charge Voldemort and snap his neck like he wanted to. The man cast too quickly for Ace to act, and while Holly's back was turned, he dared not allow a single spell past him. Forward motion was awkward, he'd need Holly to defend herself if he was to do anything- a spell in bright red clipped his fingers and Ace gasped. Pain rushed through him, stronger than anything he'd felt before. It was like every nerve in his body was being electrified- it was the same feeling he'd felt as Teach bared down on him and darkness licked at his body-

"Ace!"

Holly stood beside him, facing Voldemort, and he hissed a breath through his teeth. He'd fallen at one point, to a knee. Enraged at being taken down that far Ace rose up once again snapping out: "I'm fine."

Behind them, Draco was unconscious after Holly cracked her foot into his temple. Likewise, Lucius was down, while Narcissa bodily covered her son from further harm. Bellatrix alone was standing with the Dark Lord, but she dared not attack, Bellatrix was well aware Holly Potter was Voldemort's to kill.

As if to emphasis it Voldemort suddenly hissed: "Do not touch Bellatrix, the girl is mine," A viewpoint Holly did not share, he was more than willing to allow Ace to take Voldemort once the Horcruxes were destroyed; he'd already proven he was fast enough to catch Voldemort unaware. But until they were annihilated, Holly was fine being a distraction. She almost snorted, she was a distraction, that hadn't happened before.

Side by side with Ace staring Voldemort and Bellatrix down, Holly realized that she was going to have to let Ace into a few truths by the end of that day. "Ace, do you trust me?" Holly asked under her breath.

"Loaded question, let's go with yes." He said back; because the truth was, a part of him did, and that was an island shaking realization.

Holly exhaled in relief, this would go much better if he trusted her word and she didn't have to explain. "Okay, we can't kill Voldemort yet. There's something I have to do before he dies and that something requires information Bellatrix has."

Ace flicked his eyes to her, then to Bellatrix. He'd been right, Holly had been hiding something, and it involved Voldemort, and now it seemed she was finally ready to speak to him about it. He wished she had done so beforehand though, leaving Voldemort behind now was going to be annoying and meant they would have to find the snake once more at a later date, a later date that Ace might not even have.

Regardless Ace did tell Holly he trusted her, so for the moment, he kept his mouth shut. "Give me five seconds." He'd grab the bitch, and they'd leave, everything else they'd deal with after.

Still, Holly hesitated, she had one final thing tying her there: "Ace… Hermione and Ron?"

"They're fine." He assured her as they faced their respective opponents.

"Thank you." And together they rushed forward, Ace flying past Voldemort toward the crazed woman, and Holly spinning into a furious casting speed as she dodged. Holly took large steps actively moving as Ace had taught her to for the first time that day. Her hair swung as spells brushed passed her harmlessly. Her dueling wasn't perfect, she had a long way to go, but she was better, and that counted to Voldemort who had never seen her do anything but spam cast the expelling curse.

Lights and energy flashed between them, as Holly advanced, as she actually tried to win. As she fought far harder than she had that entire day, as she resisted the end and the fate that doomed her.

Nearby Ace threw wide an arm and braced his hand against Bellatrix's arm near her elbow. Then, in a painfully loud and brutal move, Ace grabbed the woman's dominate arm close to the wrist. With a sharp move that was all power and little finesse, he snapped the bone. Bellatrix screamed in sudden agony, she had no idea what had happened or why and Ace didn't let her figure it out either. He twisted the arm around dislocating the shoulder before he stole the wand right out of her limp fingers. Shifting his weight low Ace snatched the woman by the middle and tossed her bodily over his shoulder before he turned toward Holly standing face to face with Voldemort in the middle of the room.

Holly stood closer to Ace than Voldemort, giving her a perfect view of the single entrance to the room. Standing there were her best friends in the world; neither looked well, but in war, no one would. Hermione was shaking in a way that screamed cruciatus damage, while her eyes were amazingly clear, promising sanity considering who had done the torturing. There was a mark running up her arm, letters laying on the skin that infuriated Holly. On top of that, Hermione was leaning heavily on Ron, as if she could only just keep her feet. Holding her up was Ron with painful-looking bruises across his face, there were markings wrapped around his neck that screamed strangulation. While any other damage was hidden under his clothing.

They both stared at her in pure shock; at the ferocity she'd fought with, at the style they'd never seen Holly use before, at the man they'd glimpsed only for a second before he'd vanished before their eyes. Hermione and Ron looked at their friend, the one trained to end her own life, the girl they'd been so terrified for and saw the sheer amount of changes in her, enough that it made them breathless with hope.

It had been all of a few days, but as Lily had believed, the right person could change everything.

Then the moment broke as Voldemort returned to the fight, as Holly stepped back not giving him the satisfaction of it and apparated on the spot. Holly was well aware Voldemort would be too furious by her disappearance to notice Ron and Hermione also leaving in the same moment. While Ace, still gripping Bellatrix, vanished right along with her.

Together, Ace and Holly landed in the very same clearing they'd met, and together burst into a run for the forest edge. Holly's magic could be tracked, so they had quite the goose-chase to drag Voldemort and his people on. That, however, mattered less to Holly as she opened her mouth and laughed in pure joy.

Today she lived, Holly had one more day to find a way to escape her fate. She had another day to save Ace. To figure out the Horcrux in her head, to worry about the first degree burns the locket had put in her neck to get to Voldemort. She could worry about what she'd tell Ace about the truth and how. She could fight with him again, train with him again. She had the chance to see her friends and family, the ocean, or forests. She could have one more meal and-

And she was alive.

And Holly could enjoy that for a moment.


	7. Chapter 7

"You filthy Mudblood! The Dark Lord will have your heads for this! You will scream and beg for your pathetic existences, you'll- Grk-"

Striding into a clearing Ace tossed his shoulder upward and bounced the banshee on his shoulder, slamming her stomach into his shoulder. Bellatrix's lungs protested as she hacked and coughed trying to regain her breath for the umpteenth time that day. As she did Ace smirked pleased to have temporarily silenced her vitriol even if it was only a temporary reprieve. No matter the length, it was a blessing to have a few minutes of silence. Bellatrix had been screeching endlessly since she realized she'd been kidnapped effectively, by an invisible muggle. A fact Holly had the great pleasure of revealing; even if it cost Ace his hearing for the next hour of travel.

This was not the first clearing Ace and Holly had passed through, but like every one before it Ace shot a considering glace at the area. It was a habit he had possessed since he'd been a child wandering the forest with Sabo and later Luffy. Venturing out into the vast expanses of Dawn island and selecting camp sites with great care lest they be attacked by something Ace couldn't handle. After turning seventeen and setting sail, Ace found less reason to be out far enough into forests to need to actually camp, until he'd run into Holly. Habit had Ace scenting the air for a sign of nearby water - even though Holly could conjure water out of thin air and was carrying a house. He checked the forest for visibility, outside and in, to see threats from a distance, but also allow the tent to be hidden while they slept. Ace also took into account the animal tracks as they'd been walking for hunting and not for threat considering the size and breed of the tracks Ace had spotted. All in all, it was a good spot, and he turned to Holly automatically to tell her exactly that, and found her staring up at him.

Holly's hair was a tangled mess, sticks and drying blood clung to it. Her lip was split, and her eye was blackening from being stuck at one point during the fight. The damage at Holly's head was the only sign of the battle as her dueling robes ran all the way up to her chin, and seemed to protect the rest of her body. Quite unlike Ace who showed absolutely no sign of anything he'd done that day and instead carried the noticeable bruising from his real body still trapped in Impel Down.

Ace couldn't speak as he realized Holly had been waiting for him. She had purposely stopped, purposely paused all so he could check the area. Holly trusted him to select their campsite, and it did funny things to his stomach. He was probably hungry he told himself and forcefully looked away before he did something like blush. "This spot is good." He said watching from the corner of his eye as her lips quirked subtly and she pulled her bag off her shoulder.

"Brilliant, I'm beat." Something was off in her voice, perhaps it was because of what they soon had to speak about. Ace didn't question it then as Holly dumped her bag on her floor and flicked her wand summoning the tent from within and directing it toward the middle of the area. With another flick, the rocks and sticks surged off the ground and careened into the forest a split second before the tent hit the dirt and exploded outward as it assembled itself with a brush of her magic.

Ace tilted his head more and more as she worked watching her hands twist, and her wand rose and fell in elegant patterns. Holly gave no sign to the amount of running they'd been doing across the countryside, nor did she- he caught the eyes of Bellatrix Lestrange sneering at Holly. His mood sobered instantly as he caught the plotting expression, and he purposely bounced the banshee in punishment. Bellatrix choked and swore furiously with a purple glow in her eyes that screamed madness and power.

"I'll kill you! You'll go mad like the Longbottom's-" Holly beside him flinched, her whole body jerking as her eyes flew wide, "you can join them in the hospital named mad potty-"

_"Silencio!"_

Bellatrix's mouth worked, but no sound escaped it, Ace's brows hit his hairline as she struggled in his grip soundlessly for the first time that entire afternoon. Bellatrix was muted, the banshee was silenced. Irritation sparked, and he shot Holly a mock glare: "You couldn't have done that earlier?" he rubbed his eye with his free hand, "my ears are still ringing thanks to all her screaming."

Holly reached up in an automatic move of embarrassment, and she rubbed the back of her neck, the moment her hand made contact her breath hitched oddly, hurriedly she dropped her arm and said: "Would you believe I forgot I could?"

"Right." Ace rolled his eyes in tease as her cheeks tinted. He made a mental note to ask next time if she could do something like say, mute the endlessly screaming banshee hanging off his shoulder. Holly's blush raced up to her ears as she dutifully avoided eye-contact and Ace made a derisive noise with his nose before changing the topic. Mostly, because if he was admitting it to himself if that blush moved any further, he was going to give her a better reason for it. "Got a room for her?" he bounced Bellatrix who soundlessly swore up a storm.

Holly physically shook her head as if to shake away whatever thought had been plaguing her, then she nodded, and oh how he wondered what had been going through her head at that moment. "Err, yeah, yes! Past the bathroom we have a room we aren't currently using, so that should work."

Ace gave Holly a thumbs up before turning toward the tent which popped as it fully assembled. He left her to the wards while he secured their prisoner with his methods. The banshee was a witch and from what he understood was clueless about 'Muggle' methods. Which meant she'd be helpless to the ways he knew to keep her still. Pending he removed all the magical items from her first.

Inside Ace passed the bathroom as Bellatrix truly started to struggle, apparently she'd both gotten her energy back and had forgotten he was vastly stronger than her. It was in fact with practically no effort that Ace had been able to cart Bellatrix all over the countryside. The only mild concern he had was her claws which could potentially be used to attack his face; however, that threat had been removed when Holly bound Bellatrix with magically conjured rope. Now all the woman could do was wiggle and scream, or just wiggle now. Passed the bathroom was a single unoccupied room, Hermione's former room he assumed since Ace was currently using Ron's.

Ace opened the door and gave the room a quick glance and got a decent judge of Hermione's character with a glimpse. The bookworm was clear from a split-second glance, as however, was the people who had touched Hermione's life. Pictures lay all around the walls of people he'd never seen and probably wouldn't ever meet, yet still had meaning to the girl who had once slept there. Unwilling to give Bellatrix any sort of edge, he swiftly struck the back of her head and knocked the woman unconscious before she could get a look at any of the images. Ace was practical enough to be aware she could escape, and he didn't want these people to be put in danger as a result. Tossing Bellatrix's bound body carelessly to the bed, Ace gathered the pictures, books, and anything else with sentimental value. Then he picked up anything that could be used as a weapon or a method of escape, anything. Finally, after he'd finished that he stripped Bellatrix of any items which could have magical power, which to Ace meant just about everything. Holly had told him of an old boot which dragged her across the country, and he was not allowing such a thing to steal away their prisoner. This left Bellatrix in a room stripped bare while tied to the bed. Which… didn't admittedly look great, he could just imagine what his brothers would say about it. But it wasn't like they had a jail!

Locking the door behind him, Ace headed back to the main rooms and came to a stop. After all the time he had taken, he expected Holly to be already waiting for him. Ace knew very well exactly how long it took to put up the wards after seeing Holly do it so many times. Ace had been securing Bellatrix for longer than that, which meant she had to be finished but was still outside. Instinctively he knew why. The conversation looming over their heads, the secrets ready to be told, Ace understood how that felt. He knew what it was like to be preparing mentally to say something so huge that it froze you down to the core in hesitation. He'd done it with his father and the truth about his blood.

He knew Holly was avoiding it, avoiding him. It was why they'd spent the entire afternoon running about after a battle which had injured and drained Holly. Ace knew how to hide his tracks, Holly knew he knew how to do that. Just as Ace knew Holly had actively been covering her magical signature as they ran all over the place to 'lose Voldemort's trail.' Yet they'd traveled far farther than the needed to, far longer than was required, all because Holly was avoiding speaking to him.

A part of Ace wanted to force the issue, to get the answer he deserved. To demand she tell him what she was hiding so that he could fix it, so they could come up with a plan. But the larger part of his mind thought of Marco. Thought of his eldest brother who had sat patiently at Ace's side until he calmed down enough to tell them the truth. Who had told Ace that he didn't have to do it, that they trusted him regardless of his history. Marco had given him the space needed to allow Ace to gather himself, and now Ace could do the same for Holly.

So instead of heading outside, Ace strode toward the kitchen.

They still had stag leftover from the previous time he'd hunted, and Ace pulled it out admiring the fridge once more. He was truly beginning to appreciate magic, and all it could do. The refrigerator alone was a godsend, it allowed food to be eternally preserved, frozen in time. Thatch would have probably murdered someone for a fridge like that, just as he could see Marco bodily tackling Holly for some of the potions he'd seen in the bathroom. Blood replenisher, the sheer idea of it, Ace didn't have words.

Humming idly to himself Ace started to cook inspecting the food of Holly's world with a critical eye. He was used to trying strange things considering he was a pirate, but Holly's world did have some truly odd things. The candy had to be the best though, it was incredibly unique, and Ace honestly wished he could give some of it to Luffy for his birthday. In another universe that might have even been possible.

Feeling his mood sour Ace wrenched his mind to a different topic as he absently tasted some of the exotic spices Holly had claimed to be from across her planets oceans, evidentially easier to access than the islands of his. He put a bit of it in his mouth and shrugged, Thatch might have been horrified at him, but it tasted decent, so he tossed it on and hoped for the best. Which did make him wonder, how was Ace able to eat? If he was in an astral body, and his real one was still trapped in Impel Down, then how could his spirit consume food? It shouldn't be possible.

"How is that?" he asked himself.

"How is what?" Came Holly's voice causing him to start. He'd been so relaxed that he'd stopped keeping his observation haki active. The shock had that had him momentarily forget she'd asked a question because Ace could remember the exact moment he'd stopped using haki around the Whitebeard pirates. The very day he'd decided to trust them not to hurt him while he slept even if he hadn't joined the crew for several weeks afterward. It was the day Marco had answered his question about why they called their father what they did.

Ace stared as his entire world rocked. He trusted Holly. How had that happened?

"Ace? How is what?" Holly repeated her question as she closed the tent flap behind her and waved a hand at the fireplace. A fire started up on the spot warming the entire tent and dispersing the constant chill to his skin. His shoulders relaxed as he turned to answer her as he caught her walk right passed the coat-hanger where she always hung her robes, except for then. And as she headed straight for the bathroom leaving the door open a crack so she could hear him.

"How… I can eat." He stared at the coat hanger, his brow pinching together at the sudden change in habit. Why would she do that? A memory flashed in his head, of Holly splayed across the ground attempting to stand covered in blood. "Is this is an astral body, I shouldn't be able to eat, right? Yet I do."

In the bathroom, Holly heard his response and forced a noise in her throat to tell him she'd heard him and was thinking about it, and she was, but Holly could admit she was distracted. With her palms pressed on the bathroom sink, she grit her teeth as her neck twinged painfully. Hissing a breath through her teeth, Holly reached up and undid the first button of her dueling robes and nearly groaned in pain as the fabric caught on her wounds. Ace thought her clothing had protected her from the attacks Voldemort and Bellatrix had wrought on her, and he was half correct. The fabric protected her from cutting spells and some darker magic which was hard to shield against. But they did not protect him something like the cruciatus, or the blunt force trauma of being hurled into a spelled oak table. Nor did it protect from the item wrapped around her vulnerable neck.

While her torso was covered in bruises, her lip was split, her ankle sprained, and she was certain she'd at least bruised a rib on the table, the worst damage was on Holly's neck. Wearing it had been a necessity, wearing it around Voldemort was a mistake. The Horcrux had fought to get back to its owner, and Holly's neck had been the only thing stopping the soul fragment from returning to its main soul. The entire battle it had been wrenching brutally on her neck to return, and as a result, Holly's neck looked like someone had attempted to strangle her, and had nearly succeeded.

Her throat was a mess of bruises and deep open wounds. Tender slices raced across her throat, and what was the beginnings of a crushed larynx made every sound she made excruciating. That which wasn't bleeding had already turned a painful black from the bruising. Holly winced at it wary of pulling the rest of her robes off because the fabric had dried against her open injuries. Still, she knew to fix it she'd have to have access to it, so Holly began the process of pulling her clothes off.

As she worked her spell activated, the same one she'd cast the moment she realized had bad it was. She'd learned it back in her fifth year after her uncle took retribution on her for the twins' actions against Dudley. When she'd been picked up by the Order Holly had hidden her neck and had avoided speaking at all, so no one discovered the damage. Holly had played it off as anger toward the silence they'd given her for the summer, that as a return she wouldn't speak to them either. Holly had done so until she'd discovered the Grimmauld Place's wards covered underage magic and allowed her to use magic even if she'd only been fifteen. The spell she'd learned right after that moment allowed her to disguise her voice, in that case, with her own healthy voice, so no one found out anything was different.

The spell worked perfectly as she spoke through the pain: "It's likely because of energy. The energy used to power the spell comes from somewhere. It's possible the food your taking in is like your haki, it's helping power the spell and taking some of the cost off whoever is actually casting it." It couldn't be an easy thing to do, to send an astral body across worlds.

As she explained, Holly pulled the rest of the fabric away and ignored the prickling tears of pain forming as they ran across her cheeks in thick trails. She was no stranger to pain, so she didn't cry out. Casually Holly tossed the robes toward the corner of the room into the laundry basket then moved to grab the hem of her shirt to pull it up and over to get her first look at her torso. Standing in a sports bra that she did not want to bother pulling over her head, Holly debated just cutting the bloody thing off and getting a new one. It might be possible to get away with leaving it on because Holly had no open wounds on her chest, but then… she really didn't want to keep wearing it either.

Hissing Holly felt the locket give a brutal tug on her neck in punishment for her escape. It was coupled with a burning sensation in her scar, a constant since she'd fled from Voldemort earlier that day. Grinding her teeth to stop herself from crying out, Holly wrenched the thing off her neck and tossed it into the sink. It clattered, and blood splattered as it hit coating the porcelain, but she didn't care.

For now, Holly leaned up and opened the mirror, revealing her extra potions. The shelf had once been heavily stocked. Holly had spent the summer spam owl ordering potions in preparation for the hunt. As her supply waned, fear had overtaken her, a doubt that she wouldn't be able to replace what she used since she could not access Diagon Alley anymore. But that fear evaporated after Ace had appeared, after he showed her exactly how she could still get more.

Smiling slightly, Holly reached up and selected a larger vial and pulled it down- and a hand touched her neck.

Holly screeched hands flailing as her accidental magic surged. A red arc raced through Ace's body and splashed against the hallway wall cracking the wood and shattering a painting that had been placed that. Ace gave no mind to the attack, as he leaned forward casually and caught the vial she'd all but tossed in his direction in her surprise. Holding it in a loose grip, his eyes roamed her body, but there was no heat in his gaze.

"Ace!" Holly felt her ears burn at her undressed state, even as she pressed her hand to her chest to still her frantic heart. "Don't do that!"

Ace's brown eyes darted from bruise to bruise before they finally landed on her neck and his lips pressed together firmly. Something flashed in his eyes then, something Holly had seen before but still didn't recognize that anyone would look like that for her. It was something protective, something concerned and yet furious in defense. And for that moment Ace looked like he was about to storm from the room and rip apart Voldemort with his bare hands for daring- but he couldn't possibly be thinking that; Holly didn't deserve that from him. Not when she was lying to his face about her fate, not when she intended to keep him utterly clueless to how this war would end.

"Snake-face do this?" he reached up, and Holly watched in fascination as black slipped up his hands a split second before the tips of his fingers brushed against her chin. He didn't touch her neck out of wariness he'd hurt her, but the need to feel was still present, so he settled.

Holly's eyes were wide as she stuttered something, probably a confirmation, but her mind was too fogged to recall precisely what she said. Then Ace lifted his eyes, 'wow Ace was close, when did he get so close' she thought before blurting: "Yes! Yes, that was Vold-" his fingers tapped her lips and her brain short-circuited. Bloody hell she really was gone for him.

"Let's not summon the small fry, I just finished cooking." He commented before pulling his hands back, reminding her of the taboo and how awful she was about not saying Voldemort's name. Honestly, she'd wished Dumbledore never taught her to say his name, it was a habit now, and it was putting her life at risk.

Ace lifted the vial in his fingers and checked the label then waggled it in front of her nose. "'Bruise paste.' Just rub it in?"

"I can do it myself," Holly argued automatically. She could handle her own wounds, Holly always did if she could get away with it, she didn't need his help-

"Easier for me." He retorted quickly and thumbed off the lid with one hand, while the other nudged her until she was facing the mirror with her back to him. Holly scowled even as she let him do it, even as she reached up and snatched another vial that was needed to heal the open wounds, one which she had to drink. Holly downed it quickly as Ace's hand sank into her hair, causing her to stare at his face through the mirror. Holly watched mesmerized as he twisted her hair and tied it up without a hair-band or tie, she hadn't even known that was possible, and she was the one with the long hair.

"How'd you do that?" Holly couldn't help but ask as Ace tipped the bruise paste onto his fingers while the wounds at her neck slowly healed from the potion. Holly twitched violently as his fingers finally made contact with her tender neck and he began to rub the paste in.

"Didn't always have time for a hair-cut when I was a kid." Ace told her, giving in to his instincts and allowing himself to pass on a small piece of his personal history. "I taught myself to do it at first, my guardian's wouldn't so-" he shrugged idly and rubbed upwards into her hairline which caused her knees to go a bit weak. He was basically massaging her, and the longer he did it, the better it felt as her wounds were quickly healing. He rubbed firmly, and Holly gasped and leaned forward torn between a small amount of pain and leaning into his hands, his touch… she wanted all of that- oh Merlin-

"My bad, that hurt?" he reduced the pressure, and Holly's cheeks flamed. She thanked Circe that Ace thought it had been pain that caused the noise and not the truth.

"Nope, it's fine, keep going!" did that sound desperate? She was pretty sure she sounded a bit airy at the least.

Ace hummed unconvinced but kept going: "Anyway, I used to use sticks or vine because I couldn't afford the fancy shit. That was until I met…" he hesitated, and Holly's eyes slid open unaware of when she'd actually closed them. She watched his expression as he internally debated his next step before settling; "This lady who would come down to visit me, she taught me to cut my own hair. Sometimes I'm still too lazy to do it though." He shrugged gesturing to his hair which was beginning to brush against his shoulders at certain angles. "Probably need a cut soon." He added as an afterthought before mentally adding, 'if I live.'

Moving away from the morbid thought Ace took a careful look at Holly's neck as the bloodied wounds knit together and gave it a critical eye. He wasn't Marco, but he could still tell the difference between the bruising from hands, and from chains, and the injuries Holly had was from the latter. Ace shot a look at the blood coated locket in the sink and scowled, it was likely Voldemort had attempted to summon it, and it had gotten caught on her neck. He'd have to make sure she didn't wear it the next time they fought the man.

He leaned back, pulling his hands fuly from her neck. "Do you have bandages?"

Holly jerked her head in a quick nod and nearly tripped over herself to summon them to her hand. Holly all but shoved them into Ace's chest, face to face she watched as he wrapped her neck. His hands were butterfly soft as he took the utmost care not to hurt her further. Finally, he leaned back and shot her bruised chest a look. Seeing it, Holly's face flamed once more realizing the specific locations where she'd been hurt. As much as one part of her wanted, the more significant part realized it would be a terrible idea for Ace to be rubbing those spots.

"I… can do the rest myself."

"I figured." He handed her the vial with a smirk that screamed flirt.

Holly swatted his shoulder, aware that he'd allowed it since she couldn't touch him otherwise. "Shoo." She said, pointing firmly at the door. He gave a laugh and raised his hands innocently ready to back off, ready to leave, when he remembered the locket in the sink.

"Oh." He reached for it, "here, don't forget this."

Holly had felt it before. That ground shaking horrible moment when the whole world seems to slow, and yet speed up all at once. It was as if everything was happening at once, but she alone was frozen. Stuck there and forced to watch as her world shattered. It had happened the day Sirius fell into the veil, as his body took forever to vanish and yet she'd been unable to do a thing. And it happened again then.

Every instinct Holly possessed screamed at the same moment. It was with perfect understanding that she knew Ace, as a muggle, should absolutely under no circumstances touch a Horcrux when it power wasn't being blocked by her magic. The piece of Voldemort's soul which had plagued Ron's mind until he'd become violent even with his own magic as protection. Holly couldn't imagine what it would do to Ace, Ace who was in an astral body, a literal spirit without any protection at all.

But even as she understood this, even as her mind raged against it. Her mouth refused to work, her body was too sluggish to stop it.

_"Shit- Ace!"_

_"Stop him, Holly-"_

"Don't-"

And Ace's fingers slid around the locket, and the world exploded in a cacophony of noise.

Holly was sent hurtling backward as pure black magic surged out of the locket as it cracked open without command. Darkness encircled Ace in seconds and took physical form shoving Holly backward. Her knees struck the back of the tub as she staggered and she tripped tangling in the curtain. Holly's head cracked against the tiles as smog entangled her further. Holly's magic leapt to her command, there was no spell on her lips as her personal energy batted at the darkness, attempting to push it away from her. Green crackled against black, but despite everything leading her to believe she ought to be stronger than the Horcrux, she was losing.

Standing right where he'd been the moment his hand touched the locket Ace did not have Occlumency or magic to defend him. Instinct told him to drop the jewelry in his hands, but when he tried the chain gained a life of its own. It circled around his wrists like sea-stone snakes and stopping his haki had no effect as the chains dragged him down as it were the ocean itself and with force far stronger than Ace had felt from even Voldemort himself. He crashed to his knees breathless as his arms were yanked to the sides and out; he was trapped in the exact position he was in Impel Down, and he fought it.

The smog wrapped around his neck, squeezing. His body rebelled gasping despite that, and he inhaled pure magic, causing him to choke. The whispers began drowning out a high pitched scream of pain.

"Portgas D. Ace… or should I say Gol D. Ace." He snapped his head up as the smoke twisted a person appeared within it. Thatch, more bloodied than in Ace's memories glared down at him with a fierceness Thatch hadn't ever shown in life. Ace remembered the moment Thatch had died, he'd bled out in Ace's arms because Ace had been the one to find him. Ace remembered screaming Marco's name, remembered putting pressure on the wound and feeling Thatch get colder and colder. As Thatch gave his dying wish that Ace did not go after Teach alone, a wish Ace had blatantly ignored-

"Cursed blood." Thatch spat at him, "demon child… I should have known that blood of yours would doom me, doom us all! This is what I get for trusting a stain like you." Ace flinched as if he'd been physically slapped, and a slap would have been better.

Holly watched in horror as Ace's head dropped and his eyes went utterly dead to the strangers' words. Fury exploded in her heart, as the man she'd come to know as endlessly powerful, wickedly smart, and beyond kind crumpled before her very eyes over a few choice words. And then Ace, staring at the floor, did something she hadn't expected.

"I didn't mean for- Thatch I'm sorry! I tried to- I didn't know Teach would-" he stuttered helplessly, his eyes pleading for forgiveness at whatever crime the shade was accusing him of.

"Don't give me your excuses you demon. You think you deserve it?" 'Thatch' sneered, "you don't! The only thing something like you deserves is death. How someone didn't stamp you out long before this will forever shock me." Holly watched as 'Thatch' looked away from Ace and locked eyes with her, his eyes flashed blood red, and an unnatural smirk crossed his face. It was the same smile Tom Riddle had given her as he bragged about what he'd done to Ginny. The same one Voldemort allowed to slip onto his lipless mouth after he'd been revived with her blood in his veins.

Holly renewed her struggle screaming Ace's name, but it was drowned out as more people formed in the smoke, as the power of the locket grew while it devoured the energy Ace possessed.

Ace found himself staring at Izo crumpled on the floor holding a blood-stained shirt. His eyes lifted, bright red and blotched with his anguished tears: "It's your fault he died, your fault I'm alone now."

"If only you'd realized, Teach was in your division." Marco looked at him passively, almost indifferent except for the wicked red in his normally blue eyes that screamed fury.

"And now the entire family will die." Edward Newgate cast out a hand as a field of bodies piled up around him, all his siblings with great bloody chunks ripped out of them, "all because you selfishly ran off thinking you could fix it. One would have thought you'd know better… you can't fix anything."

"Ace!" Holly's magic surged. The shades Voldemort had summoned weren't even staring at Ace any longer, he watched her with red taunting eyes and looked at her as if to scream, 'see how helpless you are.' Gritting her teeth, Holly snapped her hand out shredding the curtain holding her still; she shoved away from the tub valiantly struggling against the smog choking Ace. Holly's magic pressed against Voldemort's but it was like fighting a wall. She could not move toward Ace, and her spell did nothing against Voldemort's power.

Why was it so strong? She should have been stronger? She should be able to defend him- to protect him but- "Ace!" she tried again desperately.

"Ace." A voice, young and achingly familiar whispered behind him, and a boy, no older than ten stepped up at his side. Sabo.

Ace flinched away from his brother who's very skin seemed to be melting away. His face seemed to be begging for help, but Ace even struggling against the chains, could do no more as an adult than he had as a child. Sabo reached forward, small hands that would never grow, and took Ace's chin in hand and wrenched his head up brutally. It was the final blow, Ace knew he wouldn't survive this, Voldemort knew it was finished, Holly knew she had to do something before it happened. But they were helpless, forced to listen as Sabo spoke: "Everything you touch dies. Like Sabo died, like your mother died, like Thatch." Voldemort savored the moment as the light in Ace died, "It'll be all your fault when Holly meets her brutal end, like that brother of yours… what was it… Luffy-"

Glass shattered. Metal shards struck the ground with soft clinks, and the black magic in the room heaved. Like a gasping breath, the smoke expanded, then all at once surged right toward Ace. The shades screamed as they were whisked into the wave before they vanished with a crash. The room was left empty for all but Holly pressed to the floor, and Ace with a bloodied hand sitting with his head bowed.

Pressing her hand to the floor, Holly stood in confusion. The shades were gone, Voldemort's magic was gone… but what happened? He had won, so why?

Holly stepped toward Ace, trainers crunching the metal and glass on the floor, but her mind didn't connect why that was happening yet. She was more focused on the fact that Ace didn't even seem to be breathing. Holly slid to her knees in front of him, uncertain if he'd accept any comfort from her, if he even could… what if he was possessed, what if she'd lost him?

"Ace?" she reached forward and watched her hand slip right through his shoulder, in theory, it should be a good sign? Shouldn't it? "Are you… Ace?" he couldn't be alright, not after that.

Holly twisted slightly trying to see through the curtain of his hair, trying to see if his eyes were still brown. "Ace?" she called once more, and his shoulders jerked. Wary, she leaned back slightly as his head lifted, and she exhaled when his hair parted revealing brown eyes.

A sheepish smile crossed Ace's face: "Sorry Holly."

Relief lit up her heart as she sagged. It was a bad sign how fast he'd adjusted to what happened. That was something she'd do, brushing off such harsh words because she believed them. Holly hated the idea that Ace would agree with any of what the shades said, and yet still didn't question it when she did the same thing. "Why are you sorry? I'm just relieved you're alright… Vold- Snake-face… that was his locket, a piece of his soul was in it. An item just like it possessed Ron's sister when I was twelve, I was worried it would…"

"Possess me?" Ace suggested, "You don't have to worry about that, I can handle snake-face just fine." He didn't want to admit he nearly had lost himself, if Sabo hadn't mentioned Luffy at the last second. Which- "Now I'm wondering why you were wearing Snake-face's locket… which, sorry about this, but I think I broke it." He lifted his hand and wiggled his bloodied fingers in front of Holly's face. And he watched her expression shift from concerned worrying, to stumped disbelief.

"YOU WHAT?!"


	8. Chapter 8

Ace wanted to go home.

Holly knelt in the bathroom with the shattered remains of her locket in her hands, giggling uncontrollably like a madwoman. Giggling like something had snapped inside her. An ear to ear smile had split across her face. She was acting like a weight had been finally pulled off her shoulders and was basking in the sheer joy of it being gone. While Ace… he just wanted to go home.

Ace wanted to see his father again, to see his brothers again, and for the first time in his life, allow them to comfort him. He wanted to… he wanted Marco to tell him it wasn't his fault that he'd missed Teach's intentions; he wanted his pops to make everything okay again, to actually hug him and be the first one to do so since Luffy. Ace felt like a child craving familiar affection, affection that he'd never sought out before in his life. Ace wanted to roll up in his bed with his piles of paperwork nearby, which he was behind on. He wanted Luffy's wanted poster hanging on the wall nearby and to hear the distant sound of drunken laughter echoing in his ears. He wanted the comfortable lull of the ocean waves under him rocking him to sleep. Ace was tired of being cold, tired of the axe hanging over his head, and being uncertain about Holly. He was so tired.

Ace grit his teeth grinding them together. He had to get it together, he actually wanted a hug; that was ridiculous, he'd never wanted something like that in years. Not since he'd been a child and Sabo had died- his hands shook, still picturing the melting face of his brother with those red eyes and speaking those harsh words. It was a terrible thing, but Ace no longer remembered Sabo's real voice, nor did he remember the way he held himself. He didn't remember the exact shade of blue that Sabo's eyes had been, now could only picture that furious red.

"You broke it!" Holly hopped in place, smiling so brightly that it almost distracted him. Her joy was as infectious as Luffy's, her presence was almost as good as his; that joy, the way Holly was able to make him relax despite all his hesitation to trust her and everything happening.

_"Cursed blood. Demon child-"_

_"-All your fault-"_

"Oh, Ace!" Holly suddenly crawled from her spot and hurled herself at him. Ace sucked in a sharp breath as she collided with his chest and wrapped her arms firmly around his neck. In his ear, she gave a squeal as she basked in the joy she was feeling.

Ace was no child in need of a hug, and even as a child, he hadn't asked for one after learning young that the bandits did not offer such comforts even to toddlers. Regardless, Ace wasn't a child, he didn't need a hug. And yet... Holly's arms still wrapped around him, her body pressed itself to his, and he quickly noticed that with her head at his neck, she couldn't see his face. Hesitating a moment, Ace sat there while she clung, before he slowly lifted his arms and wrapped them around Holly's smaller form. Then he breathed. She was so happy that he'd broken that locket, she was hugging him out of excitement, she'd been the one to do it. Ace hadn't asked for it, and that mattered somehow.

His eyes clamped shut as they burned, and Ace held in the hiccuping noise that badly wanted to escape. Fingers flexing on Holly's back, Ace allowed himself to be held and felt an inaudible sob escape. 'Cursed blood,' 'demon child,' countless told him he didn't deserve to live while his own thoughts wrote in what was missing. It was his own mind that decided it was his fault Thatch was dead, that Sabo was dead. But it was lies. It was the lies of some monstrous spirit reading his memories and insecurities, it was that snake-faced bastard's actions. Marco, Pops, Izo, and Luffy would never say such things, Sabo and Thatch wouldn't; they were his family.

It was lies and maybe if he kept telling himself that he'd actually believe it.

"It's broken! Snake-face's locket!" Holly happily proclaimed, squeezing him with all her might, "that damned thing has been telling me nonsense for months! And now it's broken all thanks to you, Ace!" A shuddering breath escaped his lips, and his whole body shook as he clung to Holly, praying she didn't try to pull back. Not yet, he wasn't ready yet. She couldn't see, no one could.

Holly stilled slightly when she felt Ace shake, when she felt his body shudder while they were pressed together. Her joy, her relief had calmed, and realization returned. The words Voldemort told Ace, the people he'd used, it had to be a painful blow, even disregarding that Ace was only present in spirit. The situation got so much worse when she remembered that Voldemort had attacked his soul. Ace was not okay, he couldn't be. Holly doubted anyone could be after Voldemort attacked them mentally like that.

Ace shook again, his fingers flexing on her waist, and Holly closed her eyes. She tightened her grip subtly on Ace's body and made herself comfortable by stretching out her legs, so she was directly in his lap chest to chest. Holly tried then to remember what Ron and Hermione had told her when they'd been eleven, and they'd surprised her with a hug. They'd been so relieved she'd been okay after Quirrel-mort's attack, and Holly hadn't been anywhere near used to physical contact, even after the year of Ron's casual touching. She'd flinched unable to help herself, and Ron had decided right then he'd hug her as much as possible to get her used to it. Holly would say he accomplished his mission by the time her second year was over, and he tackled her after they'd saved Ginny.

_"Hugging releases oxytocin, which lowers our heart rate and our cortisol levels. Cortisol is the hormone responsible for stress… so, therefore, accept our hugs, Holly!"_

_"Hermione! Don't get all technical, it's just nice to hug!"_

_"What? It's interesting, hugging is scientifically proven to help reduce stress!"_

_"In Circe's name 'Mione."_

Holly closed her eyes and lowered her chin onto Ace's shoulder, pretending she didn't notice the way his body shook. She held Ace and allowed her body to relax now that she was finally free of the locket's constant whispering. Voldemort's hissing voice had been going on endlessly about her demise, about all the people planning to betray her. About how Ace was probably going to murder her in her sleep. Holly shook her head slightly, she felt like a moron. Of course, Ace wasn't going to do that, he'd proven himself to her a dozen times over. She could trust him.

Moving slowly, Holly leaned her head against Ace's. She felt her heart lighten, and her mind wander as if chains had been removed from her heart and head. Her eyes wandered along Ace's body, he was still shirtless, and his skin wasn't black- wait a second! Holly pulled back slightly, stopping the motion just as quickly as Ace clutched her waist to stop her pulling away, she allowed him to and focused on the skin on his shoulder. Reaching up, Holly ran a finger along his shoulder and felt his skin, his real, normal skin. She could touch it, how could she touch it? Ace and whatever was holding him here should have been weaker with that attack, not stronger. Unless. Had something happened to his body? Had he ended up physically present- no, no, his waist was see-through.

Holly shifted slightly and reached her hand down to touch, and her palm went straight through his body. Confusion tripled as Ace finally allowed her to pull back and not a moment too soon as Holly was abruptly dumped onto the floor right through his body.

"Oof!" Holly winced, lifting her head automatically, and caught a glimpse of a woman with pink hair and a face full of freckles with her hand raised over Ace's shoulder, before she vanished like the wind. Holly blinked several times, wondering if she'd imagined it.

"Alright?" Ace asked his voice completely even. Holly was quickly suspicious that anything had actually been wrong with how quickly he recovered, but then she seemed to be similar to Ace in the emotional range. She was fine until she wasn't, then it was an explosion and then she was fine again.

"Yup," Holly scooted backward, so she wasn't sitting literally inside his lap. The motion caused a bit of glass to dig in, and Holly hissed unhappily. With a wave of her hand, the locket pieces collected and dumped into the nearby trash-bin; that was the best that damned thing deserved, a Muggle trash lot. "More than alright, really, I'm great!"

"Because I broke your locket?" his brow arched, and Holly knew it was finally time she told him about the Horcruxes. Holly no longer had any tie to the excuses she'd been holding onto since Ace arrived, he was clearly not an agent of Voldemort's considered he'd already destroyed a Horcrux and had saved her from the man himself. While the last holdout, the one that spoke in Dumbledore's voice and said she shouldn't trust anyone with this truth, had lost its weight. Dumbledore hadn't told anyone about Horcruxes and look where they got them, back into an endless civil war. Holly disregarded the idea of Pettigrew and a traitor, Ace wasn't that.

"It was a Horcrux." Holly curled her legs under her prepared to have one of the more critical conversations she'd had in a great long while… in a bathroom. Funny how that kept happening.

"A what?" his head cocked to the side, his lips pressed together, giving him an altogether comical look. Holly chuckled softly, trust Ace to make the heavy topic lighter. He'd probably think nothing of the problem, and considering he'd just destroyed the locket with his bare hands, she wouldn't be surprised if he did.

"A Horcrux, it's an item in which a witch or wizard has placed part of their soul. Its a tether to the earth; it keeps someone alive even if they die, and so long as one exists, you can't die." Holly watched Ace's expression shift, and the realization hit almost instantly. Ace was intelligent, she didn't need to explain any further for him to get it, and without her needing to, Ace jumped to the right conclusion.

"Snake-face made them, how many?" Ace knew it had to be more than one, there was no way a man like that would stop at one tether to the world.

"Seven." Holly's hand twitched as she stopped herself from rubbing her scar, Ace didn't need to know about that. Yes, she trusted him, but he didn't need to know her fate. Holly would spare Ace of that information, and he'd return to his life free and alive and thinking she'd lived a long, happy life in return. "The locket was one of them, my headmaster destroyed another last year, and I destroyed one in my second year."

His brows pinched, then clarity shone: "… ah, the diary."

"Exactly so."

Ace tapped the floor, and Holly noted his hand was see-through now, worry slipped into her heart seeing that. If she was right and someone, that woman maybe, was sending Ace to her using magic than Voldemort's attack would have affected her too. It likely meant that however long Ace had with her had been drastically cut down. The proof was in the way his body was steadily becoming see-through, one body part at a time.

Would this mean Ace wouldn't be able to stay with Holly? What if his time was out?

If that were the case, Holly would be alone again without a way to destroy the Horcruxes. Thanks to Ace, she was better off, she did have a hint of where to get information of the Horcruxes, Bellatrix was her prisoner, and Holly would do what it took to get information from the woman. She'd be okay, but Ace… if he was pulled back to prison where Marines were preparing to execute him. He could be killed, Merlin, Holly didn't even know how long until Ace's execution there was, it could be seconds away!

"Why didn't you destroy the locket if you had it all this time?" Ace said, tapping his hand to his chin, not noticing it was see-through yet.

"What?" Holly snapped back to attention, and Ace sighed repeating his question calmly. "Oh," Holly managed, "that's because while Dumbledore did tell me about the Horcruxes, he didn't tell me how to destroy them."

"That's suspicious." Ace immediately figured, he might be paranoid in general, but it honestly was. If the war was hinging on this and Dumbledore had actually destroyed them, the number of potential Horcruxes, and how to destroy them would be the first thing he'd tell someone. Unless Holly knew something different?

"Suspicious? Well… I don't know, he didn't exactly have the… time…" she trailed off frowning, "actually he sort of did, he spent all of last year showing me memories of potential Horcruxes and snake-faces history and when we did learn snake-face made them there was still a month before he died."

"And he destroyed one that very year, so he knew how to do it," Ace placed a hand on his hip nudging the point, "yet he didn't tell you how to do it? I'll repeat it: suspicious."

"He…" Holly bit her lip. Dumbledore hadn't told her a lot of things, he hadn't told her about what she was until he'd been poisoned by Voldemort's guilt-inducing potion. Holly hadn't honestly wondered since then if Dumbledore had ever intended to tell her the truth at all, but now she was. Would she have gone the entire Horcrux hunt clueless? Would she have defeated Voldemort, unaware that she was still tying Voldemort to life? Or had Dumbledore told someone who'd-

_"Severus… please…"_

"No," She gasped, no way, nope, she was jumping to crazy conclusions. She was mad.

Ace, mistaking her 'no' for answering his question, huffed: "Not helpful was he? Whatever. We know how to destroy it now. I'll just break the others like..." He flexed his hand and finally caught sight of its state. Alarm raced through him when Ace realized he couldn't use his Haki, the very thing he'd used to destroy the Horcrux in the first place. Armament Haki, it had to be since Ace had been actively holding the damned thing when he'd shattered it. Conquerors could be possible, but Ace had little control of his conquerors Haki, so armament was more likely… which he now couldn't use. "Shit."

"Shit?" Holly demanded.

Ace quickly rearranged his plans while hesitatingly saying: "I can't use Haki… whatever that locket did… my Haki is gone." Which meant he couldn't touch anything.

"No, I think that's temporary." Ace snapped his head toward her demanding with his expression for her to explain, and Holly quickly did so. "That attack must have drained your energy and the energy of the person keeping you here. They must have been weakened, which is why you are see-through. If they regain energy, or you do, then it should be fine." Holly nodded along to her theory, she was most likely correct, it felt right to her. "My bigger worry is actually your execution, we never discussed it. When are they going to do it?"

"So I need to eat? You thought that helped right? Good thing I made… the food!" he launched off to the floor and sprinted from the room, leaving Holly in the dust. She blinked after him, then huffed, stood, and followed. She had been wondering about that smell.

Entering the kitchen after Ace, who was helplessly trying to get food out of the oven, which he couldn't touch. Holly waved a hand, causing the door to open, and the large rack of deer meat flew out and onto a plate. "How do you intend to eat when you can't touch the food," Holly partly teased as Ace bemoaned the slightly crispy skin. "And can you answer my question, please? When are you going to be executed?" She had two plans for solving Ace's imprisonment, but she had yet to find the proper spell to accomplish them, and she wasn't sure Ace would go for one considering what it involved.

Ace grabbed at the meat, and his hand went straight through it, "No idea, I've been here for what… two weeks?" Holly nodded since that was a generally accurate guess. "My execution will probably be a… larger than normal event, so the Marines will be expecting a fight. They'll need to prepare and move me to Marineford before it happens. I'd guess…" he stopped grabbing for the meat as he really thought about when he was going to die. About the moment he'd be up on that platform, the second that two swords would slice through his body and his life just… stopped.

He was going to die.

"Ace?"

"A couple days," Ace choked out, "by this point, they'll probably move me soon. And if I can't regain my Haki, I can't help you win your war. You'll have to figure out how to use Haki yourself, because I'll be gone."

'Gone?' panicked anger hit her, and Holly stomped forward and growled as she stared up at Ace. She got as close as possible without being able to touch him. "Don't you dare say that! How could you- you aren't going to- you stupid- AH!" she stomped her foot, unable to articulate her thoughts. Holly physically shook her head and stepped back, ignoring how much of a hypocrite she was that she was getting upset that Ace was convinced he was going to die.

"We'll just have to solve your imprisonment first, then you'll be free to teach me Haki, and then we can find the other Horcruxes." There, that was coherent enough.

"Holly… I'm in another world, I'm in a prison that is considered inescapable guarded by a jailer that can kill you with a single touch." Holly jerked, that was the first she'd heard of it. Then again, Ace had told Holly very little about his world or himself over the time he'd been around her. Which… why was he telling her now? Did he trust her now? "I'm on the lowest level, and when they do finally move me, I'll be guarded by thousands of Marines, many of which make Vold- Snakeface look like a chump. Holly, I hate to say this… but I'm a dead man walking, I always have been."

Holly shook her head in denial. No, there had to be a way to save Ace, there had to be! "Then why agree to the deal!? Why agree to work with me if you didn't think I could handle it?"

Ace lifted his fingers feeling oddly calm while Holly was freaking out: "first, because I didn't know your capabilities. Secondly, because I am trapped with you-" Holly sucked in a breath feeling a rush of betrayal that stung her heart, "-and thirdly, I wanted to help you, and you're stubborn."

Her spine straightened ready to defend herself, ready to say something, anything in her abrupt anger: "Well you can just-"

"And," Ace spoke loudly over her, "now I know you can't handle it. Now I know you, and I can say you're probably one of the best people I could have been trapped with for the last weeks of my life. And I still want to help you, we can fix your war even if we can't fix my fate."

Except they couldn't because she was going to die just like Ace was. But he didn't know that, and she wasn't going to tell him. She couldn't. "Great sentiment Ace, but it's bullshit. I'm saving you whether you think I can or not." This would not be Sirius all over again; it wouldn't be Moody or Hedwig; Ace was absolutely not going to die. That woman had chosen Holly for a reason, and Holly wasn't going to disappoint; she could handle it, otherwise she never would have been selected.

"Holly… I don't think you understand how strong these people are." Ace pressed as she spun on a heel and marched toward her bookshelf. She was stubborn as he'd said, and he really should have lied about his estimated time left. Now she was going to focus on his problem, and not her own when she had a prisoner, and three more Horcruxes to find - assuming the last was Voldemort himself. Holly should be focusing on that and more specifically, learning Haki because it was the only way they knew of to destroy the Horcruxes. However, the time he had left wasn't enough for her to learn, it would take months… months he didn't have.

Maybe she had the right idea? If he was free, then he could physically help her and could train her to use Haki- but no, he wasn't kidding that she was out of her league. The Marines would have the best guarding him, people that could run circles around Ace they'd be faster than light to Holly and would see her spells a mile away. She couldn't save him even if she found a way into his world.

"I thought I could apparate right to your location, but I don't know if I can do that across worlds," Holly said pulling out books, "then I thought I could swap my spirit with yours, and use my magic to break you out and apparate to safety. But I'll need a location to escape to, which requires reading your mind. If I can use magic in your body at all."

"Absolutely not."

"Yeah, I didn't think you'd like that; most people don't." She thought it was the mind-reading that was the problem, she had no idea that it was something entirely different for Ace. It was Magellan, Impel down, and the chains around his entire body keeping him completely immobile. Ace had seen Holly apparate, she had to be able to move to do it, and he physically couldn't. She'd get herself killed, Holly was going to get herself killed.

"So I'll just have to find a way to travel worlds, this would be so much easier with Hermione."

How could he make her understand? If Ace had Haki he'd show her just how much he'd been holding back against her, that even without his flames, he could defeat her. She had no idea the scope of what he was facing or how determined the Marines would be to keep him, to kill him. She didn't know whose child he was, and as ridiculous as sounded to him… even if he told her, Holly wouldn't get it. She wouldn't care who Roger was, wouldn't care that he was Roger's son.

She would perhaps be one of the very few that didn't care and the only one who wouldn't even blink over it.

When had that become a bad thing?

Ace hesitated as Holly tossed books over her shoulder, hunting for something specific. He was warmed by her determination, by the fact that no matter what she'd heard from Voldemort's shade, she still wanted to save him. But Holly didn't know the truth, and perhaps it was time for him to tell her just why the Marines were so determined to kill him. Just like she'd told him about the Horcruxes. "Holly-"

"Just, just let me do this Ace," Holly kept her eyes on the titles, "you need to live okay? Because… because it's you and… I might actually be falling…" she turned, mouth open and found herself in an empty room. Ace was gone.

* * *

Rouge panted with her back pressed to the wall of the tent. Nearby Sirius watched as Holly and Ace spoke, and he kept careful watch of them and their mental state. They'd both taken a blow, several in fact, and there were far more upcoming. Thankfully they'd found a brief moment of peace only to fill it with deep conversation. Damn, the kids couldn't catch a break, could they?

When Rouge finally caught her breath, Sirius turned his attention to her. "That was all your energy Rouge… are you sure you wanted to use it like that?"

Rouge recovering but feeling weaker than she ever had before, nodded. She'd seen Ace fading after Voldemort's spirit attacked Lily directly through the connection she had with Ace. She'd had seen Lily's energy wrenched from her and had noticed that it was quickly affecting her son, who would not be able to use Haki, which required that very same energy. Rouge had also seen how emotionally struck Ace was by the attack. She had watched over her son all his life, she knew precisely what Ace acted and looked like when he was agitated, and she'd never seen him that broken down before.

Those words put in the mouths of the people Ace actually trusted, it had been needlessly cruel and a direct attack. It was no surprise Ace had only fought back when the moronic wizard had tried to use Luffy of all people against him. It was almost a blessing that Voldemort had tried it; Luffy was the one person Ace trusted the most, and Rogue knew Luffy would never turn on his brother like that, as much as Ace did it seemed. Still, even if the attack ended, Ace had been affected and had needed comfort, even if he didn't want to recognize that need.

"I'm sure," She told Sirius, "Ace needed it more than we probably realize."

Holly Potter was right for her son, she read his needs effortlessly and unconsciously. She had known Ace needed comfort and had realized quickly that Ace would never ask for it. So despite basking in her joy of the destruction of a Horcrux as Sirius had been doing, Holly had still kept in mind Ace's needs enough to subtly allow him to accept the help he needed. At the same time, Rouge had ensured the hug Holly offered could actually be felt.

It was worth it. Even if Rouge had no energy to speak of anymore.

She just hoped that energy wasn't needed later, especially with how drained Lily now was.

"We should check on Lily," Sirius mumbled, watching the pair finally break down and confess a few truths. It was about time Holly mentioned the Horcruxes to Ace even if she was still holding back the truth of her fate.

"Right…" Rouge took a step back and allowed herself to slip along the connection Lily had with her son. In a moment, she found herself standing back in the darkness of Impel down. It was a jarring change after the warmth and bright colors of the magical tent Holly currently made her home. Sirius was a split second behind her and stopped to find Lily's form flickering as she kept her hands forcefully on Ace's head. Neither Ace nor Lily looked good. Lily's very soul had taken damage from Voldemort's attack, and it was showing on her body, which should have been never changing. While Ace… while the physical didn't show on Ace's spirit, it did on his body.

Little bloodied gashes raced up her son's body like someone had squeezed the life out of him. The countless little cuts bled out inky black blood, a result of the malice Voldemort had been putting out. Ace thankfully didn't seem to notice the damage at the moment, but that was explainable by the fact that his spirit was still with Holly so he wouldn't. Still, Rouge couldn't help but cringe upon seeing it. Ace would be in a great deal of pain when he returned to his body, and going off Lily's state that would be soon.

"Lils… you need to stop." James urged, giving them both a concerned look, he had no idea what happened to cause this, and he wanted to.

"I… I can't," Lily's hands shook, "they're not ready, Ace hasn't told her how to find him… and Holly still thinks she needs to… to die." Lily sobbed out a breath, and James hissed.

"Lily, you are out of energy, you'll going to be using up your soul soon. Let me finish this. I can handle it with what I have left."

"Time will close in on them!" Lily snapped, knowing the spell she'd designed made it so time moved faster on Holly's side than Ace's. It gave them more time to bond.

"It will anyway, Lily," James placed his hands on hers, "you're too weak to keep the spell going."

"You have to let go anyway," Sirius added from the doorway, "the guards are coming."

The three of them snapped their attention to the doors, and Lily hurriedly released Ace's forehead with a gasp. Ace immediately choked as he was yanked back into his body, his mouth open to say something. In that split-second Lily stared down at him, Ace looked up at her, and their eyes met for the briefest moment. Then a clang sounded, and they both snapped back to attention.

"He saw me," Lily breathed, "he looked right at me…"

"Shit." Ace swore as the pain of the cuts registered, his muscles were rigid, more so than it already was, as one of his eyes closed as his body braced itself. Voices echoed down the path, people were coming, and Ace didn't have time to dwell on what was happening to his body because of it.

"I believe Holly saw me as well," Rouge confessed, "after I released Ace, she looked right into my eyes… though it's doubtful she knows who I am." Ace wouldn't have mentioned her, Rouge knew that much. But it was possible Holly would ask, considering she was already curious enough. Rouge hoped so, she wanted Ace to know that he still had a mother had loved him, even if she was nothing more than a ghost.

"They're coming," Sirius announced, sticking his head out of the cell door and looking down where they couldn't see. He ignored James kissing Lily and praising her efforts before they both took position behind Ace to send him back to Holly when these Marines were gone. "Big group and a… err, not actually sure what that is."

"That?" Rouge left her son's side as Ace shoved back any expression of pain to glare balefully at the door. He was prepared for what the Marines had for him, or so he told himself. Ace was expecting his escort, already acknowledging the fact that he'd likely guessed wrong. His 'few days' was actually right then. Right that moment, before he'd told Holly anything substantial, before she figured out how to get to his world, before she learned Haki.

They'd run out of time, and he- shit, he'd never even taken the chance to kiss her.

"That." Rouge repeated as she realized what was happening, and she smiled, "that, is a he, and that… that is a good thing."

"It- err- he is?" Sirius asked, glancing at Rouge just as the Marines stopped in front of Ace's cell with their newest prisoner between them.

"Jimbe." Ace breathed as the Fishman straightened proudly, even as the Marines snapped at Ace to put his back to the cell wall away from the door. Ace scoffed at them: "Like I can put it anywhere else." One of the Marines retaliated fiercely, and his fist cracked against Ace's cheek. Ready for precisely that, Ace narrowly avoided biting down on his tongue. He allowed his face to roll with the punch before lifting his head again. Ace spat the blood that collected in his mouth at the Marines 'pristine' clothing and earned another strike for it.

For a moment, Ace wondered how Holly would react to that and felt his heart lighten slightly because he could already picture her fury.

"Tell me you didn't do that shit in Azkaban Padfoot?" James asked as Ace snarled like a dog at the Marines who finished chaining up the huge blue man.

"Eh, not that exactly. The guards didn't really interact, but I did spit at a dementor once… in retrospect, it was a mistake, but it felt good at the time."

"Men," Rouge rolled her eyes, she would bet all her galleons that Roger had done exactly the same thing at one point just to mess with the guards.

"So, Rouge, who is this?" Lily put the question forth as the Marines backed off, taunting Jimbe.

"That is Jimbe; he's an ally to the Whitebeard Pirates, and one Ace considers a friend." Rouge was losing track of what was happening in her own world with how focused she'd been on Ace and Holly working together. So she didn't know why Jimbe was present, but she could guess going off the information she did have. "It's likely he protested starting a war with Whitebeard, which resulted in his arrest."

"But if he's a pirate, then why would protesting get him arrested?"

"Because Jimbe is a Shichibukai."

"A what?" echoed three confused voices.

"What's happening?" Ace cut to the chase with his friend, "why are you here?"

Jimbe heaved a breath as the Marines left his hearing range and answered to the best of his ability, "The marines announced your execution publicly, they intend to start a war… they are tempting fate. They know well that your family will never sit around while you are executed, they want this to happen."

Ace guessed as much, he knew if it were any of his siblings, if any of them were to be executed publicly than he'd never hesitate to rush to their defense. It shouldn't be a surprise the crew would do precisely that for him, yet it was. Because he had purposely gone against his father's orders, he'd intentionally left to hunt down Teach. Teach who had been part of his division, who Ace should have noticed, should have stopped.

"They don't blame you for this Ace," Jimbe stated as firmly as he could, "this is on Teach. It is his fault, his and the Marines."

"Sure." Ace mumbled half-heartedly. But there was still going to be a war. Becaus he'd let his guard down around Teach, because he'd left, because Ace hadn't noticed, because he'd underestimated his opponent members of the crew would die and their deaths would be his fault. "Why are you here?"

"I refused to join the slaughter… I refuse to be a part of it."

Not a surprise either, Jimbe had his crew and his island to think about. He was torn between his people and his ideals. Ace got it, and in another universe, he'd be glad for the friendly company until his last day. But in this case… in this case, he had different priorities and a different focus. He was hardly conscious in his cell anymore and was honestly thankful for it. And now that he was thinking about it, Jimbe was perhaps the perfect person to ask the question burning a hole in his lungs.

"Is there a Marine that can create worlds? Or trick you into thinking you're in a completely different one. You'd know… wouldn't you?" Jimbe frowned at the sudden jump when Ace added quickly: "It could be someone with red hair? And… really bright green eyes." Eyes like Holly's, a nose like Holly's. A woman who looked just like Holly, who'd want him to save her, help her… a woman that was probably her mother, which would explain quite a bit.

"No," Jimbe answered, "to my knowledge, no Marine has that ability. The closest I can think of is in Big Mom's crew. Why do you ask?"

Ace exhaled as the slices across his skin throbbed, as the chill in his bones grew, and yet he felt relief. "Because some dead woman is sending my spirit to her daughter, all so I can save her daughter's life before mine ends. And I wanted to be sure she's not a fever dream that some Marine bitch is showing me," The tension fled his shoulders, and his expression softened without his knowledge causing Jimbe's eyes to fly wide. "I wanted to be sure because I think I might be falling for the moron, which is probably some shit timing on my part."

Jimbe blinked at him, his mouth opening and closing in shock. He had no idea what to say to that while Ace felt his lips quirk upward as he felt the sensation of something a bit firmer than he was used to brushing across his forehead. It seems he wasn't done yet, he was glad.

"So don't be surprised when I fall into a coma, I gotta solve her issue quickly. Guessing I don't have long before this war starts."

"You are scheduled for execution in four days. But Ace, you aren't making any sense."

Ace shrugged to the best of his ability, Jimbe would figure it out or he wouldn't, Ace didn't have the time to explain. Hands yanked on his consciousness, and the cell vanished.

Ace staggered forward, able to move once more. A quick glance down revealed his spirit had retained the bloodied marks across his body, and he knew Holly would ask about them. But first… black raced up his hand, and Ace straightened his spine. He had his Haki again, but for how long he didn't know, so he had to take advantage of it.

Striding forward Ace noted the books cast in every direction, Holly seemed to have abandoned the shelf and the room itself when he'd been talking to Jimbe. Taking advantage of the time alone, and well aware she had to be nearby, Ace quickly yanked a book from the shelf at random. Opening it to the inside cover, Ace snatched up a nearby pen and promptly started to write as clear of an explanation as he could. A step by step method to learning armament Haki so that if the Marines came early, if he died, then Holly could find it and could finish destroying the Horcruxes without him. She was always going through the books, he knew she'd see what he'd written eventually and thought it would take months for her to get the basics, Holly would do it. Ace knew she would.

With that done, he snapped the book closed and replaced it. Then he returned the pen to its rightful spot and allowed his Haki to fade. There, one task done. Now he just had to interrogate the banshee, so Holly didn't have to, then, unfortunately, he'd likely have to kill her. Once she knew what they wanted, she couldn't be allowed to escape. If she found out they were hunting for Voldemort's ties to life, he'd take measures to ensure they couldn't destroy them all. So no, Voldemort couldn't be allowed to discover the truth, ever.

"Ace!" Ace turned away from the shelf and found Holly staring at him in palpable relief. His heart skipped a beat when he saw her, and he relaxed entirely. She wasn't a trick; she was a real woman. "Bloody hell! I thought the Marines were going to kill you! You've never vanished completely before." She rushed forward, forgetting that he shouldn't be touchable at all, and embraced him. Ace used his haki to ensure she didn't fall right through his body, taking a moment to hold her even if he likely didn't have much to use.

Dismissively Ace flapped his free hand: "Nah, just a couple guards giving me a new bunk-mate…" he trailed off as Holly tightened her grip, as she leaned back, her eyes flicking to between his eyes and his lips in a debate. He held his breath, wondering if she'd do it; if she did, he wouldn't protest. Holly's eyes met hers, and he saw a glitter there, mischief perhaps? Would she actually…?

But she didn't. Holly abruptly pulled back: "A bunk-mate?" Holly noted the black where she'd been holding him and swatted at him playfully relieved to see it. "Don't do that again!"

"Not like I can help it." He had four days, but Holly did not need to know that. This was his perfect chance to turn her off her plan to risk her life to save his. Ace could tell her about Jimbe, he could say to her that he had much longer than the four days he honestly had. He just had to lie. "He's an ally to my father, an ally to my crew. And apparently, the Marines intend to use me as an example due to the power of my crew, of my father."

Holly's eyes narrowed in suspicious fury, these Marines sounded worse and worse with each mention, not to mention the wounds Ace kept gaining every time he vanished and came back. "What does that mean?"

"I have time, their whole plot… they intend to make my execution public, and when I'm being moved, is the best time to be rescued." He swallowed shoving back the truth, shoving back the tremor threatening to give him away, "they'll move me two weeks from now. We have until then to find a way to escape, or for you to steal me from them."

"Why does that time work when the others don't?" she was still suspicious, and Ace did his best to placate her.

"The strongest will be at the actual execution sight, the Marines won't expect rescue when I'm being transported because the path between the prison and the execution sight is one of the most secure Marine locations in the world due to the current." Ace grabbed for a scrap paper and quickly drew out the current between the three central locations of Marineford, Impel Down, and Enies Lobby. "Each one of these locations has a marine controlled door, and it's the only way to escape the current. When moving me from Impel down to Marineford, I'll be on this current."

"Oh, got it," Holly tapped his drawing, "with magic I can fly so the current won't affect me. So I can grab you and escape, and the lower level of security won't be able to stop me."

"Exactly." Ace watched her steal the drawing and pocket it, he watched her mind turning and tried to relax. It was actually a feasible plan… one his family likely wouldn't go with due to the challenge the Marines had put to them. Should he- no, who knew who would actually escort him. It could very well be someone like Akainu or Magellan, and those men would murder her on sight for trying to help him.

"So I need to find a way to travel between worlds, find this current… and get a second broom. I wonder if you can fly one? Something to test."

"And in the mean-time, we find the three Horcruxes unaccounted for and interrogate the Banshee." He finished.

"She'll probably know where one is… then the snake is probably one, Nagini, his pet."

"Living things can be one?" Ace was surprised to hear that. Holly implied otherwise.

She nodded to his question but didn't elaborate: "I should show you what Hermione guessed. See, the locket is a Slytherin item… so it's part of the school, which was his first real home. All the items we do know of is of sentimental value."

"Stupid, I'd have picked a random rock on the beach."

"That's what Ron said!" Holly laughed, "but Snake-face is oddly sentimental for a terrorist. Anyway, we guessed the other items were also involved with the school, especially after Dumbledore showed me a memory of him going after Helga Hufflepuff's cup." Holly went for the bookshelf, and Ace felt his heart leap into his chest when she went close to the book he'd written in. By some miracle, however, she didn't grab it and instead pulled out another. This she opened and showed him a random page.

"The Locket of Slytherin's wife, the cup of Helga Hufflepuff, and the Diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw… thought missing for centuries, but he very well could have found it." She tapped the picture showing him what the items looked like, "I think the diadem and the cup are the two other Horcruxes, I'll know for sure, depending on what Bellatrix tells us."

"So the pet snake, the cup, and this crown." Ace snorted, this was a treasure hunt, and the woman that resembled Holly had selected him, a pirate, to help her with it. It was like he was destined to do this, find some treasure, and save the girl. "Then Voldemort himself?"

Holly's face twitched "…right. Cup, crown, then snake… then we can kill Voldemort and save you. All in two weeks."

"Better get started then." Four days, three items, and the big guy. He could do it. "Ready to interrogate the banshee?"

"Ready." Ace turned his back to Holly and started toward the back room while Holly hesitated a moment, just a moment to lift her hand to her forehead and felt a rush of regret.

She trusted Ace, she believed now that he was genuinely going to help her and she… she liked him. This was beyond her temporary crushes on the boys at her school, it was so much more intense with Ace. Holly truly liked him, she wanted to know him better, wanted to spend every quiet moment at his side; she wanted nothing more than to take him by the shoulders and finally give in to that building desire in her gut. Holly wanted to kiss him, to feel his touch. She wanted to… bloody hell, she wanted to date him, wanted a relationship. Holly wanted it all and wanted so much longer than what either of them had.

She had been ready to do it just then. When Ace reappeared alive, she hadn't even thought to resist it. She'd been about to press their lips together regardless of all her hesitation. But then she'd caught his eyes and had just… done it. Maybe it was a whim or some instinctual part of her that demanded she do it. Holly had caught his eyes and… she'd looked. Holly honestly couldn't judge him; she was lying, so it wasn't a surprise Ace was all well for her own good. And lying he was.

Four days.

Ace had four days to live. She had four days to solve that problem, and everyone else could screw off until she'd done it.


	9. Chapter 9

Ace had run into a problem and one he ought to have expected. His general plan for the future was to defeat Voldemort, find his Horcruxes, and end the war in the process of four intensely packed days. Unfortunately for him, the first hurdle of that problem was actually the most difficult. Namely, he had to find the Horcruxes, and to do that, he needed a certain screaming bitch to talk. Which in itself should not have a problem, he'd managed to get enemies to talk after all, he was a pirate for gods sake. Fuck, he'd done it as a child with just a dark look. But the problem wasn't the method in which he could get her to speak but rather the fact that he was completely invisible to one Bellatrix Lestrange.

He stood in her room, furious as she struggled against her binds and swore to every one of her magical gods that existed. She wouldn't escape, Ace was confident of that. But Bellatrix also was clueless to his presence; she had no idea he was there. The woman would see him, couldn't sense his presence in the slightest. Haki truthfully worked, he had carried her before, but he couldn't ask the questions he needed answers for. And plain physical torture… it had never set well in his belly, but he was willing to do it. But he couldn't.

He couldn't ask her the questions he desperately needed. To get the information crucial to Holly's survival and the ending of her war, and he had four days left to live. Less likely for when the guards went to move in the morning of his execution, then he'd… he'd be pulled from this world and forced back into his body. It had happened before, it would happen again.

Ace gritted his teeth and leaned backward. His hand automatically pressed into his stomach, where his insides twisted as the stress built. As the time-line he had left to work with made his fingers shake and his mind rush. Four fucking days, he had four days to live- he was going to die in-

He wasn't scared. He wasn't afraid of death, not his own. He'd known from the moment he could understand the world that he was destined to die. He'd known from moment one that his blood would one day get him killed, and the choice to become a pirate had only shortened his time. Ace knew all that. He wasn't scared of it, not when he'd always known but- but-

"Shit." He sank along the wall and closed his eyes firmly. Ace wasn't scared of his own death, he never had been. But his loved one's end? Nothing had destroyed him more than Sabo's death, nothing had terrified him more than Luffy's. It was why Thatch had shattered him so badly, why he hadn't been able to stand still a moment and dwell on the death of his Nakama. He almost… he almost wished he'd never met Holly. Because if hadn't met her then he'd be facing his death unafraid, he'd have four days, and he'd have accepted that. But meeting Holly… now he had one more person to fear for, and this one should never be facing what the rest of his family had.

"Dammit." He did not have time to analyze his feelings for Holly Potter. He pushed off from the wall and steered toward Bellatrix Lestrange. Ace had to fix the problem in front of him, he needed to figure out how to get information from a woman that couldn't see him without… without forcing Holly to be the one to do the deed. Shit, she'd have to do it, wouldn't she? If he couldn't get the information, then Holly would have to.

He sighed, he hadn't wanted to ask her, he hadn't wanted to put that on Holly. Not that she couldn't handle it, but he'd have preferred she kept her hands clean, cleaner than his anyway. Not to mention few people could actually handle torturing another for information. Needs must but… Ace shook his head and shoved off the ground. He turned, tossed the door open and slammed it behind him to startle the bitch behind. It was a mind game, it all was. She'd be wondering if he was inside or out, she would have no idea, and it would hopefully make her hesitate and fret.

Ace strode down the hall toward the living room and paused when he entered. Holly was sitting on the couch with her face practically shoved into a book. She was mumbling furiously under her breath, and from what he could catch, her angry mumbling involved her friend Hermione figuring something out when she couldn't. His expression softened despite himself and he stopped to just watch her. To watch as she hurriedly wrote in her journal, watched as she swiped her nose, causing ink to coat the spot she'd touched.

He exhaled sharply.

What was he doing?

What sort of self-sacrificing bullshit was he pulling? He was a pirate! He'd had plenty of one night stands before, what made Holly different? No. Of course, he knew the answer to that already, he'd fallen for the girl. For the crinkle of her nose when she was concentrated, for the way she pushed and pushed when it came to training. The way she absolutely refused to judge him no matter how many self deprecating and admittedly good reasons he gave her no to associate with him - not that she had a choice. He had been immediately attracted to her, and it had only gotten worse the more he denied himself. Because he was dying, because he couldn't live with her, because he had a thousand reasons under the sun not to touch.

Ace took a step forward. He was a liar to himself, and to Jimbe, it was more than just a simple 'might be falling for this girl.' No, Ace was head over heels and blind. His crew would have teased him so much over it. But of course he had a habit of doing that. Of denying his own feelings, he'd done it with the crew even knowing passively that he'd join them sooner or later. He'd lasted forever denying his own thoughts, and he was doing it again. Except this time he didn't have the time to adjust, he was a dead man walking.

"Holly."

She glanced up startled; Holly hadn't heard Ace slam the door or even enter the room, not with how much focus she was putting into her research. She had to find a way to travel worlds in four days, she had to develop an entire branch of magic from scratch because nothing existed to help her. She had to create like her mother before her. To do so in four days when Lily had a year to create a spell to protect her daughter. It was stressing her out, but Holly was used to stress. Though admittedly, this was the most stressed she'd felt in ever because it was Ace's life on the line and not her own. But Holly was handling it. She was.

And then Ace said her name in a tone filled with intent, and she looked up and her whole sort of… skipped.

His eyes were dilated, his posture intense, and his entire focus was on her. Holly, she'd never seen such a hungry look before even if her body instinctively understood what it meant. His eyes flicked to her lips and she wiggled slightly in her seat as her own darted down to his chest and back up. Why, why did he need to be shirtless? Why hadn't the damned guards in his crazy prison thought to clothe him, was it to make her suffer?

"Ace?" she voiced tentatively.

"I… am a pirate."

Amusement fluttered in her chest even as he stalked forward. Even as she instinctively set her journal and quill to the side, she had a feeling… the smallest hint that something was going to happen. Holly licked her lips, breathing in and smelling nothing but him. When he got that close? "I'm aware… you mention it every chance you can."

Ace placed his hands on her chair, cornering her in the small space. He lowered his body, so they practically nose to nose, but he didn't touch yet. She could stop this at any moment, she knew that was a possibility, knew he'd pull away if she told him no. She knew it with a type of certainly that made her want it all the more, because he would pull away. He was stronger than her, but he'd never force it, never.

So she said nothing.

"Pirates take what they want." Ace told her as she stared into her eyes.

They both knew it then. One shift, one shift would be all it took.

They breathed together, and Holly's magic eager filled the air. It seemed to scream at her 'finally.' While everything else, everything else in her body and mind screamed 'do it.'

They were doomed, both of them destined to die. Ace in four days if Holly couldn't change it and Holly shortly after to end Voldemort once in for all. They were both running on borrowed time since the moment of their birth. Ace because of his father and blood, Holly because of a sherry drinking prophet.

And… and Ace wanted. And Holly was tired of her a martyr.

"Then do it." Holly dared staring into his eyes while throwing caution and guilt to the wind. So she was going to die, she'd die having been royally properly snogged by a man she loved.

Ace closed the distance them in an instant. And finally, finally, he pressed his lips to her own, and it was unlike anything she'd ever felt before. It wasn't the clumsy attempt in the quidditch equipment room or the tearful ambush from a confused Cho Chang. It was… Holly didn't even have the words to describe it adequately. Ace was the dying fire of hope in her chest exploding to life, threatening to devour her entirely. He was one half of a scale in which she placed the world against, and he tipped it. Ace was the one pulling her back from the edge while pressing his forehead to her own, desperately saying: 'please don't go.'

His lips were soft against her own, but it electrified her body. With a jerk, her hands snapped upward, one sank into his hair, and the other cupped the back of his head. She rose halfway in her seat, craving more but found immediately the position was awkward. Her body and magic wanted friction, wanted to press against his body, to finally feel the muscles in his chest that she'd been staring at for months.

Ace seemed to just know what she wanted because his hands left the armrests of the chair and slipped under her back. The broke lips for a moment, a moment for Holly to grab in a gasp as Ace pulled her upward. He lifted her straight off her feet and right off the chair. On instinct, Holly wrapped her legs around Ace's waist as he straightened and held her there effortlessly. She whined in the back of her throat over it, and then Ace's lips were on her again.

His tongue brushed against her lips, and Holly opened her mouth. Hermione had described an open mouth kiss before, once, but Holly was going in blind. She'd never gotten so far before, and she honestly hoped she wasn't wholly screwing everything up. But then Ace's tongue brushed the inside of her mouth, and Holly just went with the flow. She felt Ace squeeze her ass, and Holly nearly squeaked at the feeling even as she lifted her body slightly, pressing her chest to Ace's.

She wanted more. So much more.

She pulled back slightly to take in another breath and caught the utter heat in Ace's face. A smirk that was entirely Slytherin lit up her face as she glanced at him through her lashes. Then she quite plainly, and heedless of any prior arguments against the event said: "more."

His own brow rose as he matched her expression, as his head tilted in a clear 'your wish is my command,' sort of look. She tugged on his hair in slight retribution, but it only seemed to spur him on. Ace leaned back in- and a scream of rage sounded from the hallway. He paused for the slightest moment, but that was all it took.

"Seriously?" Holly wined. She was actually rather pissed off as she shot a look toward the back room.

Ace not putting her down, followed her glance, "I closed that door… isn't it soundproof?"

"it should be…" Holly groaned, "which means the spells are faltering, she's probably using wandless magic to do it. Which means I need to reapply them and stop her or she's going to get out."

Ace scowled and still refused to put her down. "The ropes will hold."

"Non-magical rope Ace, she'll get free of those if she figures out to use her magic wandlessly."

"That'll take a while though," he wiggled his brows at her, and Holly playfully slapped his chest.

"No." She said firmly, "down."

He swore softly and finally lowered her to the floor, revealing just how interested in the situation he'd been. Holly, she couldn't help but look and felt her cheeks positively burn. Ace, utterly unashamed stated: "you're missing out,"

"I'll take your word for that." She brushed her clothes down, thankful that her own clear interest wasn't as visible as Ace's was. Not for the first time she was grateful she was a girl, she never could have pulled off the confidence Ace did in that situation. Regardless, Holly forced herself to look away from Ace so she could head down the hall to deal with the problem. She did actually need to renew the spells. Bellatrix escaping, in general, was bad, but Bellatrix escaping when she was losing her- well, that would be even worse.

Ace followed behind Holly a moment later, and she absolutely refused to look at him. Not because she'd likely turn a thousand shades of red, but because she didn't want to be that nervous virgin that couldn't help but ask, 'what does this mean?' because… because she had no idea. And because she knew what it meant to her. It was, it was the faltering of her resolve. It was the kiss and the sex of a dying woman. A dying woman that Ace did not know was dying.

Holly was terrified to know what Ace would do, say, or think if he did know. If he ever found out… she didn't know how he'd react. She'd had betrayals before, she'd seen how Ron and Hermione reacted to unexpected things, and she couldn't handle it if Ace abandoned her. She wouldn't handle it if he glared at her like Ron had when he'd left. Ace's feeling on the subject mattered more to her than Ron or Hermione's. They'd both try to save her, but they'd both expect it. They'd been given every hint in the world to realize what Holly was and what needed to happen. But Ace… no, she'd never tell him. She'd save him and send him away, and he'd never learn the truth.

So Holly knew what it meant. It was the desires of a dying woman, a fling… it was just a fling.

"There's something you should know."

Holly paused at the door and glanced back at Ace. He was a step behind her, and as she turned, he looked straight at her. Automatically Holly analyzed his expression as she'd done with everyone else in her life. She looked for the typical tells of… of anger, jealously, and all manner of negative emotions Holly had continuously faced. But on Ace, she fond none and it honestly surprised it. Perhaps… perhaps because she was the only one feeling guilty? Because why he'd lied about the timing of his death, she'd lied about her death entirely.

Regardless Ace looked composed; the heat had faded in the face of what they had to do. He looked like his regular self, slightly amused and generally good-natured. But there, there it was, a tiny fissure of guilt and Holly's arched a brow in question over it.

Ace clicked his tongue, his head lifted slightly as he took in a breath, then he dropped it to confess his truth. A relatively harmless one in comparison to Holly's: "I can't get the information from her." Holly felt taken aback a moment, then recalled they were dealing with more than a potential relationship.

"What do you mean?" she still asked, of course.

"She can't see me, so I cannot get information from her. We need to figure out another method to extract the knowledge she has… you will have to torture her, I'll show you have but…"

Holly made a noise of understanding even as she turned away from him and nudged over the door. Passively, as she pressed her hands into the wood, she tested the spells keeping Bellatrix in place. There were faltering as she'd guessed, and Holly would have to replace them shortly. Unless they handled the Bellatrix problem right then which Holly intended to do. She'd waited because she had a spell to develop, and funny how quickly Ace had dragged her attention from that. She'd also waited because Ace had been insistent on handling the information gathering, but now that he couldn't… well, Holly knew of a dangerous but potentially successful manner that did not involve torture.

"I doubt she'll respond to physical displays of violence Ace, she's batty and loyal to him to a fault."

"Hn, maybe I know that. Maybe I just want to get my hands dirty?" Ace taunted her as Holly inspected the wards, her magic brushing against him in a way that he only recently recognized as something she passively did.

He watched for her reaction to the comment even as half his mind dwelled on the kiss. He'd finally given in and had realized in that moment it had been a damned mistake, but not in the way he expected. He'd thought he'd regret it, regret it when he was dying. But now Ace realized he had grossly underestimated what he'd feel after he'd done it.

Ace wanted more. He wanted to feel her body pressed into his in the throws of full blow sex. He wanted her perched in his lap during the quiet nights on the Moby-dick. He wanted… he wanted everything with her. He wanted a wife, wanted children, he wanted to teach her and the children how to sail. He wanted a little house hidden away on one of his father's islands where they could sneak away. He wanted the crew teasing him endlessly because of his tiny witch wife. Ace wanted to steal Holly a ring, for her be amused and teasing that he'd had to steal it at all. He wanted to introduce her to Luffy and have his brother love her as much as he did.

He'd thought it was a quick tumble. A moment to be with Holly before he died, a chance before she risked her life in a war. Instead a single kiss offered him the future. He wanted every piece of her, every chance at a life together, and he'd get none of it.

What had he done?

Holly, in the end, gave him an unimpressed look, and he found himself smiling, unable to keep his joy to himself. "Yeah, because you're so clean." Her eyes darted from his bare feet upward to his filth covered body, reminding him slightly that he had not bathed in a horribly long time.

"Not literally dirty." He protested as Holly tossed open the door revealing their prisoner; he watched her falter reminding him of the state he'd left their prisoner in. Ace leaned up over her shoulder attempting to see her face as she took in the state of Bellatrix Lestrange. Once again, she didn't disappoint.

"Really, Ace? I realize you're in prison, but there are better ways of getting off. This one will probably give you disease." She eyed him slightly, "Then again, I had heard pirates don't bathe, and you aren't exactly disproving that fact."

Bellatrix was stripped to her undergarments and tied to Hermione's bed. Her mouth had been gaged, and as Holly walked in, the woman began to struggle violently. Bellatrix twisted and snarled growling deep in her throat. Muffled violence escaped her lips as her eyes bulged. Holly knew that if Ace hadn't tied Bellatrix down properly that the woman would no doubt escaped just to rip out Holly's throat in revenge.

Ace laughed at her comment, and Holly felt the ridiculous jealously forming in her chest easing. She knew he had to have a reason, but the sight of that admittedly attractive shrew nearly naked because Ace had done strange things to her emotions. Crazy Bellatrix was, but unattractive, she was not. Lestrange had a beautiful body, and even Holly couldn't deny it. It made her… not precisely ashamed of herself, but more aware of where Ace's eyes might stray. He was a pirate after all, she doubted he was as innocent as she was with the physical.

"I'll have you know I bathe once a month!" Ace protested then bust out laughing harder when she gave him a horrified look. "I'm joking! Honestly! I can't believe you fell for that." He entered the room behind Holly and ignored the struggling prisoner for the moment. "Dirt is one of the easier ways to get sick on the Ocean and one of the easiest ways for a disease to spread. We bathe regularly, even devil fruit users." He wiggled his brows at her, "we bathe our whole bodies. And besides, you weren't complaining a few minutes ago now were you?"

Her eyes flickered to his lips and down before her cheeks flamed again. Pouting, she turned her back to him. Eyes softening Ace found himself wanting. "Also," he added, "that shrew is not my type. I prefer-" what was he doing- "more tanned skin and green eyes."

Her eyes widened, and she stared at him. The moment was charged, and they were a step away from giving in, always just a step. They'd been so close only for the bitch to ruin it. Now, Ace reminded her she could take whenever she wanted. Because they both wanted it, they wanted to feel it. They both wanted more.

However, they did have a prisoner to interrogate, so they left the moment drop.

"She's undressed because of those portkey's of yours." Ace once again reminded Holly that he was a strategist, a captain in his own right. He brought up a magical ability she'd mentioned offhand once and kept in mind it could be a mundane item. He ensured Bellatrix couldn't escape, that she did not have one of those items on her by ensuring she had nothing on her. Holly hadn't even thought she might. Moody would have been ashamed at her; without Ace, she might have lost her only advantage and hiding spot.

"Accio, portkey." She cast instantly and heard something come flying from the hallway where Ace had dumped Bellatrix's things. Unwilling to touch it and be sent away Holly let the rather simple pin fly passed her head to crack into the wall. Using another spell Holly banished it back to where it had come while Ace puffed up with superiority. By then, he knew precisely what Accio did and knew he'd proven his point. He'd been right to strip the shrew. Ace turned her way and stuck his tongue out, and Holly on sheer impulse almost surged forward to bite it. Merlin, she really needed to get herself under control.

She made a face at him before refocusing on the original point of coming into Hermione's former room. Bellatrix needed to be interrogated.

"Leave this to me then." Holly finally said as she strode into the room. Ace hummed following her lazily; Holly was confident as she moved, assured she could do… whatever it was that she was doing so, Ace had faith. Had faith and tried to shove back the attraction he felt as she took charge of the situation in one smooth movement.

Holly meanwhile pulled a mask over herself, shoved back all the squishy feelings she had over Ace, and faced down the woman that killed her god-father. While Ace stood lazily behind her. It was odd, Bellatrix couldn't even see Ace, and yet Holly felt utterly secure because of his presence behind her. She felt positively safe. A distant part of Holly realized then that she hadn't felt like that in a very long time. Not since the brief instance that Sirius offered her to move in with him in her third year.

She nearly faltered, nearly paused, turned to him, and admitted everything to him right there. Holly almost told Ace exactly how safe he made her feel and why it was such an enormous deal to her that he did. However, she didn't. Instead, she faced her god-father's murderer with Ace at her back.

"You once told me dark magic was about emotion… do you remember?" Bellatrix had said it the day Sirius died. Holly had been bearing down on her form, trying so desperately to use the cruciatus, to make the bitch hurt for what she'd done. In her chest, there had been nothing but rage, nothing but darkness licking at her magic. She had reveled in it, feeling the euphoria of a dark spell and understood how easy it was to give in.

Holly would genuinely have given in if Dumbledore hadn't shown up right then. She would have fallen in her grief and never would have surfaced. And he, if hadn't shown up, Holly wasn't sure where she'd be, she honestly didn't know. Because Holly didn't mind casting the unforgivables since that moment, imperio was becoming one of her go-to spells out of convenience. Besides, it wasn't like anyone was around to judge her use of it. Ace didn't exactly understand and probably wouldn't care that the spell she was using was a dark one.

In the end… perhaps Dumbledore hadn't actually arrived in time. Maybe dark magic was truly just a different branch, and it was only the reason for using the spell that truly mattered. Or… perhaps she truly was going dark and should be worried about it. Should be, if she wasn't on death's door.

Bellatrix snarled at Holly; she would have spat at her if she could. Instead, the woman clawed at the bed. Holly nodded slightly; she hadn't expected a proper answer gagged or not.

"The cruciatus requires anger… you mentioned that." She pressed her hand against Bellatrix's forehead, "but legillimency requires only willpower… and I promise you, I have more than you." She breathed in, focused her mind, and locked her green eyes with Bellatrix's purple. Then she intoned the words.

_"Legillimens."_

The headache began immediately as Holly crashed into Bellatrix's shields. It was like practicing with Luna, but so much worse, Luna's madness was controlled, Bellatrix was a storm of pure chaos coupled with active shields attempting to prevent Holly access. Shields built from years of training with her family twisted by the dementors.

Passing the faulty shields was simple, the problem became getting through the madness within. Holly's mind ran in words, she thought out her thoughts and did not picture them. But Bellatrix, like Luna, though in picture and it burned. It was too bright, to random. It wasn't like Luna's swirling colors of memory, of brief images that resembled little to do with the events. But rather a jumble of images that flashed at her out of order and twisted beyond rational comprehension.

To Holly, who thought of memories as words, it was painful to witness. She recalled her memories through words spoken and thoughts to slip through her head. But looking into Bellatrix's mind was like she was living it, and the woman was giving it her all the ensure Holly suffered through the spell cast. Holly was living in Bellatrix's mind as she witnessed jumbled memories of torture. Of the dementors pulling at her soul. As she knelt low before Voldemort with lust in her body. As a man screamed under her wand-

_"Holly… you're bleeding."_

Holly was thrown immediately, mind ripped at and wrenched apart. Her consciousness was split and surrounded, memories bled through, her own or Bellatrix's Holly couldn't say. She was a little girl sitting on the carpet with the Dursley- Narcissa- Vernon. She had her wand for the first time- great things- no no not that one- it hurt-

She looked toward the dark lord in awe- he was stunning- his power unimaginable. He was a young man before the face of Salazaar Slytherin, and she was warning him to run- she was kneeling before him, begging for his attention, trying to prove herself to everyone who doubted because she was a woman. She would warm his bed, she'd give anything to kiss him-

A hand met her back warmer than should have been natural, contact that had previously been in the same spot only minutes before in an entirely different situation. Holly felt herself gasp even as her mind tumbled deeper into Bellatrix's. She pulled at the connect then, tried to separate her own thoughts from Bellatrix's. Holly latched onto Ace's hand mentally as an anchor in her own body. Then she refocused, she needed the Horcrux, she needed-

Bellatrix stood before a sea of gold with an item so much more precious than the rest. With the care no one knew she possessed, Bellatrix placed it down, the dark lord's soul. A glittering golden cup on a pillow of unimaginable quality-

_'The bank.'_

Holly wrenched back, cutting the connection as Bellatrix screamed in her head in defeat and guilt. Staggering backward she felt Ace shift, he caught her as her knees gave out and scooped her off the ground into his arms once more. Holly dropped her head against his neck, gasping for air as her head pounded. As she tried to rebuild her tattered shields from what Bellatrix had done.

"Holly?"

They were moving away from Bellatrix, Ace was carrying her from danger, protecting her so she could recover. But it was too late. Something was eating at her shields, something was moving within her to take advantage of the damage temporarily inflicted- something was- "no!"

He shields ripped, and Holly felt her box go limp.

Ace stopped dead staggering when Holly suddenly jerked in his arm, as she suddenly screamed like the devil was at her heels. He shot a look down and froze as her body arched in his grip. Her eyes snapped open as her green eyes bled red, and then she hissed. Ace was reminded of the creature within the locket, the beast that had tried to kill him. Holly, with the red eyes, twisted in his grip, she sneered cruelly, and an eerily familiar expression crossed her face. Voldemort's Ace instantly recognized.

"I see you muggle." Her lips formed the words, but it was not her voice that escaped, it was his.

"Holly…" he exhaled her name in horror. He had no idea what to do, no idea what happened. This was magic, and he was no wizard, he didn't know what to do to fix it. No idea where to take her to repair the damage.

"And I see her- she's hunting them." Voldemort's voice crossed into fearful, "They are mine- must protect- the school- the diadem!"

Holly's body seized, and Ace dropped to his knees, that he knew how to handle. He placed Holly on the ground before her head cracked into his and twisted his body. Without care to the damage he'd do, he slammed his heel into the nearby book-case and sent it skidding away. Just in time too, as Holly's body jerked, if he hadn't moved it, she would have smashed her skull into the wood. "Holly!" He swore, he wasn't Marco either, he had no idea how to help her beyond letting the seizure run its course.

Her body violently shook as Holly's head moved independent of her torso, it resembled a snake as blood-red eyes locked on him. "I see you muggle, the one the fool girl loves." He laughed, the sound overlapping with Holly's voice, "let's see her act when I take what she finds more precious to her-"

"NO!"

Holly slammed down on her shields with a gasp. Utterly panicked, she wrenched her body forward, nearly cracking her head against Ace's and would have if he hadn't moved at the last second.

"No, no, no, no." She panted trying to get her feet under her and found her legs refused to obey. She didn't have the time to relax, she had to tell Ron and Hermione, Holly had to tell them- tell them what she'd seen when they demanded information. Wait no? No. They weren't here, they weren't insisting she shove back the recoil of the attack like always. They were demanding she put what she learned before her own body and mind.

Holly wrenched out of her panic as she caught sight of Ace, who, upon grabbing her attention, reached forward. With the most gentle of hands, he slowly wrapped his arms around her body and pulled her into his lap. Her entire body was shaking from the possessions, the first since her fifth year when she'd been clueless to her connection. When she barely any shields to speak of. Her last since she'd foolishly let Voldemort into her mind and got her god-father killed.

She released a sob and felt Ace's head drop onto her shoulder. Helplessly she swiped at her eyes when they dared to water and did her best to calm down but… but it wasn't easy. She felt filthy. Like she was covered in tar and would never be clean. Voldemort had raped her mind; he'd gotten in and found- and found disastrous information. He knew what they were doing, and she didn't have the time to recover.

Ace, at the same time, pressed his forehead into her shoulder. He inhaled a shaky, relieved breath. Her eyes were green again, she was back but… but she wasn't safe. He'd heard what that thing learned, he knew what they had to do. He'd thought he had more time. He'd thought… for a moment, a single moment that he'd lost her. Gritting his teeth, he, like Holly, shoved it back.

Their time was up.

He pulled back from her shoulder: "What do you need?" he asked, mind whirling with plans, anything to keep it away from the fact that the one kiss he'd gotten from her would be the only one.

Holly's face screwed up as she hastily reassembled her mental shields. They didn't need to be perfect, Voldemort already knew what he needed to, but they did need to keep his emotions out. She didn't have the luxury of time to do more than that. But she did have to do at least that, she needed a clear mind for what happened next.

"He… you-know-who knows we're hunting Horcruxes. Bellatrix, she ripped apart my shields and he read my memories… he's already on his way to the bank- he's… we have to get them first."

Ace sharply nodded: "get what you need, meet me outside."

"O... kay…" what was he doing? Holly watched Ace stand, accepted his hand to help her regain her own shaking legs. Then he turned and marched toward the room where Bellatrix was imprisoned. "Ace?"

"You have what you need from her?" he asked, not facing her.

"Yes…"

"Alright, then I'm going to tie up the loose end."

Realization struck. Ace was going to kill her, end her in a flash. The right hand of the Dark Lord, the murderer of thousands, the one who drove Alice and Frank to madness and killed her god-father. She was going to die, just like that.

Holly stared at Ace's back, at the tattoo there as he opened the room. She stared at the back of the man who was carrying the burdens she couldn't bear. Who was going to kill in cold blood because Holly couldn't. Her hand shook as she mentally swore. That was it then, Voldemort of all people was right, Holly loved Portgus D. Ace. And it didn't even matter because she was going to die to save the magical world that very day and no one would be there to save Ace.

No. Holly swung her hand up, she pooled all the magic she could and latched onto her best memory. The memory of Ace's lips on her own, and the realization that Holly had actually fallen in love. For, the memory, despite being touched by the anguish of what would happen next, was still a good one. And from her hands, her Patronus formed, and it wasn't Prongs.

"Of course." Holly exhaled seeing the creature. Just like Tonks before her, Holly's Patronus had changed to match the memory used to create it. Before it had been her father because she'd used a memory of him. But now she used one of Ace, and her Patronus reflected that.

"Alright, I need to send a message to Hermione Jean Granger," She told the beast, "tell her… tell her that… tell her that the last Horcrux is Nagini and a diadem in the school, I don't know where it is, but it'll be there somewhere. I am going to destroy the last… two, with Ace and… and tell her when the battle is over I need her to do something. A last request." She cast her eyes at the door to ensure Ace couldn't hear her, "I need her to save the life of the man I love."


	10. Chapter 10

A thick curled tail vanished into the tent's wall as Holly's new Patronus sped away towards Hermione. It's distinct stripes differing by a slightly darker tint of white. Holly distantly found it fascinating, the idea of a tiger as a Patronus. It reminded her of pure magic and the ability to hold darkness and light hand in hand. For the tiger was as white as the love-filled magic used to create it, but the stripes… the stripes were an incredibly light gray. Holly hadn't even realized it was possible to have a Patronus be anything but pure blinding white.

It fit Holly decided because Ace was all that. He held darkness just as he held light, and knew he'd do what it took to protect his loved ones and… and her. Holly also knew that Ace's actions, his willingness to do what it took would easily be considered dark to the magical community. If anyone else was standing in her spot, Hermione or Ron, Remus, even Sirius! If any of them had been in her position, waiting around as Ace killed a woman just steps away… they'd be horrified. But Holly, she just felt… safe.

"How ironic," she murmured to herself. Here she was feeling safe when her world was actively ending. This was her last day on earth; everything in her knew that that fact was an uncontested truth. And still, she'd never felt safer. True, she could argue it was the feeling of her Patronus and that the distinct taste of safety would fade. Yet she knew that saying so would be a lie.

Holly lifted her face as the door to Hermione's room opened, and Ace stepped forward. She watched the black fade from his hands and took a slightly aborted step forward. Her mind was whirling, thoughts on repeat. The terror of what she knew would occur, the awareness in her blood that Ace's fate was now in Hermione's hands, and the intense desire too… too just-

"Holly?" Ace reached her side quicker than he should have. His hand was raised, reaching for her arm but not touching and as she glanced up Holly saw something, something almost vulnerable in Ace's eyes; it was a breath away from uncertain as if he wasn't sure she'd even allow him to touch her now that he'd killed a woman. Holly, the second she realized why he was hesitating, finished the movement she'd denied herself. She stepped straight into Ace's space and buried her head under his chin.

They had to hurry, Voldemort was already acting, and the longer she hesitated, the worse the outcome. Holly understood that, she did! But this was her last chance to… it was her last quiet moment. Holly knew the instant they left the tent, everything would speed up. She'd be running blind without a plan, desperately trying to destroy as many Horcruxes as she could before she and Voldemort had their final brutal battle. Before she died, hopefully dragging Voldemort with her.

She just wanted a moment.

"Holly?" Ace's hands automatically wrapped around her back, and she knew he could feel her tears on his skin. His fingers flexed on her back, fluttered uncertainly, "Holly, it's going to be fine. I can handle that snake-faced beast with one arm tied behind my back." He gave a chuckle, and Holly bit her lip to prevent the sob from escaping her. She should have told him the full truth, she really should have- "Holly~" he sang her name, unsure how to act with a woman crying into his arms, he could say it was a first. "The guys nothing but a punk, we've got this."

She breathed deep, braced herself, and then pulled back to look Ace right in the eyes. That was it; her time was up. "I know," she nodded firmly as if to convince herself that she was ready, "now let's go mess him up."

In return, Ace scoffed, "you gotta learn to swear more often," he was joking with her, joking to ease her anxiety, but all Holly could focus on was his hands. His left hand reached up and wiped her tears away with a gentle touch. As he turned the same palm to run his knuckles across her cheek while his other hand squeezed her back in comfort. Acknowledging her fear and reassuring her in a dozen different ways that things would be fine.

By the gods, Holly wished she could believe that.

"Let's go." Ace said once he was sure she could handle it.

"Lets." Holly agreed as she gripped tight to his biceps. He'd come with her when she apparated even if she hadn't held on, but Holly didn't want to take any chances. So she gripped Ace tight and with a twist of her heel apparated straight out of the tent that she'd never seen again.

-And they landed in a war zone.

"Bloody fu-" Ace wrenched on her arms and dragged her downward, a bright green spell shot passed her head to splash against Gringott's walls. Holly scrambled to adjust despite everything Ace drilled into her about fighting. She couldn't help it as her trainers slipped in a thick layer of blood coating the ground. Truthfully it was only Ace's grip on her arms that kept her from ending up on her ass. He held her upright, kept her safe. All the while, Ace was already analyzing their situation, taking in the area they'd landed in and was coming up with a plan for battle on the spot as any good captain did. It was something he'd learned to do over the years, something Holly would figure out eventually… if she were given a chance.

Ace was, by then, used to finding himself in large chaotic battles. Crew against crew, men dying around them, with the shower of wood pelting against his body, adding fuel to his fire. Ace knew how to handle canon fire and death screams, to react to the deck being blasted apart by his ankles and how to adjust accordingly to a sword swinging for his neck at that very same moment. It was how he'd known to prepare for anything when he felt the now familiar sensation of Holly's apparition. Knew how long the squeezing sensation would last before he may need to dodge or pull Holly out of the path of a lethal spell.

But this wasn't the same sort of battle, what they'd landed it was nothing short of a massacre. It was a large room of stone, desks were shattered, and the walls were melted, but any sign of fight was minimal. This was no 'battle' where both sides fought for their lives, and one came out on top. This was the equivalent of a Yonko against a rookie; it was nothing but a one-sided blood bath. Creatures, goblins Ace was fairly certain going off Holly's earlier description, were scattered across the floor. Some lay face down as if asleep, others with their chests caved in, but all of them dead.

In the middle of the mess was Voldemort barefoot in the blood. At his heel was a giant snake curled up safely. The man had a single living goblin in his grip; the bank teller was danging in mid-air, struggling to remove the hand, preventing him from taking a breath. Voldemort himself, however, was turned their way, he'd caught their arrival, and they had to act accordingly.

"Potter," a smile that could curdle blood was growing on Voldemort's face, and Holly wasn't mistaken when she caught the blatant relief in his gaze. He knew because of their timing that they hadn't destroyed his Horcrux, he knew it was safe and could, therefore, focus on Holly. He knew that all he had to do was kill Holly and he'd win. There would be no more concern for the prophecy, no reason to doubt his final victory. And all he had to do was kill one minuscule seventeen-year-old girl.

"Holly." Ace straightened from his crouch and slid his feet apart in a familiar fighting stance. Preparing for a hell of a fight, Ace braced his arms and fisted his palms. Then firmly, he gave her one word: "Go."

They had no time to plan, no time to discuss, they just had to act, and Ace was confident Holly understood him well enough to know exactly what she should do next. Ace didn't need to tell her. He didn't know where the cup was, didn't know where to find it, so she had to. He'd stall Voldemort, then, when she had the cup in hand, she'd apparate straight out of the bank, and like he had back when she'd first tried to leave him, he'd follow right along.

That was their best plan, and she knew it.

Holly straightened from her own crouch and felt herself feel a little… annoyed. Somewhat because Ace was once again giving her hope. Because if he was right and everything went according to that spur of the moment plan, then Holly and Ace would survive this battle. She'd live again. And she was almost annoyed by the universe always making her think, 'today's the day,' only to give her more time. A part of her wanted to just get it over with, but that part had been firmly smothered into it was nothing but an ember, invisible when compared to Ace's flames.

"Don't die."

"Please, as if I'll let this bastard kill me," Ace inhaled as he did for every battle, inhaled as if he had a fire in his gut. Oxygen powered his abilities and strengthened his devil fruit. Oxygen in his lungs kept him going while the lack of it ensured his defeat against Teach. The traitor had known Ace needed to breathe, so Teach had suffocated him to win. Well, now Ace had no fire. He was just a normal human using haki against a wizard. It could be worse Ace figured, and on the upside, he'd definitely get the satisfaction of punching Voldemort in the throat for everything the bastard had done to Holly.

In the end, though, Ace knew it would be an exciting battle.

"Go." He said again before he surged forward. The first blow was the most important in this fight, and Ace wasn't going to hesitate and miss it. His fist extended as he punched out against Voldemort. As Ace swung all his weight at the man's stupid looking sunken nose. Voldemort, unfortunately, must have sensed something, for a shield spawned between them. Ace's haki coated knuckles smashed into the invisible shield, and it shattered under his skin.

Used to sparring with Holly Ace pushed passed the first level of defense to follow up into Voldemort's face. He struck true, but the killing blow Ace intended became nothing more than a brutal punch due to the shield. The magic had taken power out of Ace's blow. He was satisfied enough that had Voldemort carried a typical nose, Ace would have broken it. As it was, Ace dismissed the thought and rushed to follow up on his first attack with a second.

"Bring it ugly," Ace snapped out as his foot went swinging for Voldemort's chest. If he could hit accurately, he'd drive the oxygen from Voldemort's lungs, which would cause his spells - mostly requiring vocal help - to falter. With that, Ace would be able to land correctly and ideally snap the bastard's neck before catching up to Holly. He quite obviously, wasn't that lucky. The man recovered far too quickly from Ace's first attack and hurtled a spell into Ace's chest. Ace was thrown bodily across the room, sent twisting as he attempted to land on his feet.

Ace caught his footing at the last moment and went skidding backward. Any attempts to rush back into close quarters - his best chance at victory considering his fighting method - was failed when his bare feet slid in the blood coating the floor. Ace clucked his tongue in displeasure before throwing himself to the side as he narrowly avoided a follow-up spell. He had no time to wish for boots that would help his grip in the gunk as he vaulted over a destroyed desk. Another spell sliced clean through the desk, but Ace was already circling around to charge Voldemort again.

The man clearly wanted Ace to keep his distance though, as Voldemort shot a spell at the floor. Large amounts of blood near the man collected together and formed a living hooded snake that snapped in Ace's direction. It knew where Ace was, which meant, Voldemort despite being unable to see Ace, also knew where he was. Ace wasn't sure how Voldemort was tracking him. It could have been an instantly cast spell when Ace got contact on his face, it could also be the vibration Voldemort could feel on the floor with his snake-altered body, or it could be the bloodied footprints Ace was leaving across the ground. It really didn't matter. The man was tracking him, and was Voldemort was desperate to end the battle.

Because Holly was a quick little monster, she'd already grabbed the single living goblin in the room and had vanished behind the large doors at the back of the room. She'd done all that under fire from Voldemort's spells, done it in the moment Ace charged.

Ace was proud of her, and he would ensure she had her chance to find the damned cup. He wouldn't give Voldemort a single inch. Voldemort would not pursue Holly, he wouldn't get anywhere near her.

Not as long as Ace was present and able to fight.

And he charged once more.

* * *

"Prongs!"

"Nows really not a great time Padfoot." His hands were shaking, he could feel them shaking, but he couldn't see them. They had faded, his entire spirit was fading. He was out of magic, had nothing left to give; none of them did, but he still couldn't stop. The fading climbed up his arms as he kept his hands on Ace's shoulders, as he stayed there as his body, what was left behind, started to burn. But at the same time, he lost feeling in everything else. As if that part of him didn't exist.

He was vanishing, and not one of them knew what it would mean for his soul.

But he still didn't let go.

"Prongs stop!" Sirius grabbed for his hands and tried to tug them off Ace's shoulders, but his hands went straight through James's body. Another damning sign. Ghosts to could touch each other and if Sirius couldn't touch him, then James was no longer a ghost. "Stop! James!"

"She's not safe yet." He gasped out. He could sense Ace, feel what was happening. In the back of James' consciousness, he could sense a dulled echo of Ace's emotions and damn if that just made him more attached to the kid. His son in law, his little girl's soulmate loved her so much. Ace was full to the brim with protective instinct and willing to risk his life to save Holly's. And what James wouldn't give to be among the living at that moment. So he could tell Ace that he was accepted and eagerly welcomed into the Potter family, to actually help save them both so they didn't have to suffer so much alone.

"Let me-"

"You have nothing to give either Padfoot." He sank to his knees when he lost feeling in his legs.

"Rouge-"

"She doesn't know how." Please, by all the gods… please- he could feel the fight in Ace, feel the boy pulling on James spirit unaware. Ace was fighting tooth and nail, utilizing enormous amounts of haki to defend himself and Holly. It was pulling James out of existence but he didn't care. He'd already died for his pup, doing it again would be nothing shocking.

"That's it! I'm getting Lily," yes, that would be good. She couldn't stop him either, but he'd like to see her one last time.

_"Someones coming!"_ James and Sirius both snapped toward Jimbe, the Fishman who Rouge said could be trusted. The large blue figure who'd guarded Ace's sleep with the them. Who'd distracted, snarled, and insulted when a guard had approached earlier to check on them. When that same guard moved with intent to hurt and likely torture Ace as the ones before had. Jimbe had effortlessly pulled the guard's attention, and Ace had been allowed to remain under James' magic to stay with Holly.

They were grateful to the Fishman who was looking around the cell as if trying to find them. Jimbe, Rouge told them, was highly intelligent. He'd already taken the brief words Ace had given him and had come up with a plausible and accurate guess of what was happening to his friend.

_"I can sense them, it's Magellan and Hancock… they cannot know about this, you must wake Ace."_

Sirius and James exchanged a look as footsteps approached, as Sirius pleaded with him, begging him to let go. "James, please."

"She'll die- I can't… not my Holly…"

"Have faith in her," Sirius insisted, "Ace gave her hope, he gave her hope. She'll survive this! James, trust them!"

The sound of footsteps got closer. Jimbe was speaking again to them, urging them to release Ace and the dangers of failing to do so. James didn't need the warnings, while Lily had been with Ace he'd looked into the guard of Impel down. He and Sirius had spent hours memorizing the prison and all it's potential escape routes with hope in their hearts. Hope that Holly and Ace would defeat Voldemort and that Holly would use their secretive help to rescue Ace in return.

James knew the danger Magellan posed, knew how dangerous a single touch of that man. He knew Ace had to be aware when Magellan was nearby because if that man suspected anything- but if James released Ace, Holly would be- his daughter would be helpless and unaware that Ace had been dragged away for an unknown amount of time. She'd be racing through Gringott's with Voldemort on her heels, and James knew he couldn't send Ace back to her.

If he let go now, then that was it. There was nothing left he could do.

"James!"

But if he didn't, then Ace would be in danger. Magellan could very well poison Ace while he was helpless, and James couldn't risk that either.

"Bugger!" James wrenched his hands from Ace's shoulders, and the boy came to with a gasp.

* * *

"I swear to Circe I'll imperio you!" Holly threatened as she bodily hauled the goblin out of the cart. The single living teller was a furious mess as she dragged him along the hallways demanding to know where Bellatrix's vault was. He was less than helpful.

"My people have been killed, my honor demands I avenge them by-"

"I give zero shits about your honor or traditions!" well, Ace had told her to swear more, she would oblige. "The snake-faced bastard just killed every goblin in here for this cup, and if I can't get it, you can start considering him your supreme overlord. So if you want him dead like I do, you will show me to Bellatrix's vault now." She truly was reaching the end of her tether now that she was off telling random goblins about the Horcruxes. All she wanted was that cup and to leave. All she wanted was to find a way to save Ace and then herself in that order. She didn't want to be bodily dragging one single obnoxious goblin through Gringott's to find Hufflepuff's stupid cup all because Dumbledore had to keep everything in his life secret.

If she died today, she was so finding Dumbledore in the afterlife just to punch the bastard in the throat for all the shit he'd dropped onto her shoulders. Hmm, Ace might have corrupted her more than she thought actually.

"I do not listen to humans." Oh, that was it.

"Screw it!" She turned on her heel wrenching up her stolen wand and shoved it into the goblins forehead. "Imperio!" all the magic in her body slammed into the poor goblins unprotected mind. He didn't stand a chance as she took over his entire being with her spell. His eyes glazed, and he obediently dropped into a more subservient stance as he waited for Holly to give him orders. She opened her mouth to do so- and an explosion rocked the bank down the lowest levels.

Holly shot a wide-eyed look at the roof as several rocks fell shook loose by the force of it. A moment after it occurred, she steadied her shields as a flare-up of pure rage echoed through the Horcrux within her. Holly personally took that as a good sign, yes the explosion was terrible, but Voldemort wouldn't be that angry if he'd succeeded at killing Ace. Yes, it was a good side, Ace was fine. He was her vanguard, protecting her as she collected the cup. He'd hold out. He was strong enough to hold out when only Dumbledore had ever matched Voldemort in battle.

Ace was there, everything was fine.

Holly turned to the goblin and made her demands. Because Ace was fine, but that didn't mean she didn't need to hurry.

* * *

Ace laughed in taunt as he won a brutal point from Voldemort. Back and forth, they'd gone, and the room looked nothing like it had when Ace and Holly had entered. The walls were caverned out, the floor a mess of rubble, the bodies long ago blasted into dust. Voldemort's dominant arm was broken thanks to a well-placed blow from Ace. However, that strike had cost Ace the use of his own.

His shoulder was a mess of tissue and bone. His skin had been blown clean off, and Ace could make out the white of his upper arm. Unfortunately, Ace was forced to let his limb hang loose as he had nothing to bind the wound with. He did his best to ignore the pain and the way his arm wasn't bleeding while he furiously fought to win and to defend Holly as she completed her task. He had a feeling she'd probably be upset at the state of his body when they finally escaped, but there was little he could do about it by this point. He might even secretly be looking forward to it, to be fussed over… cared about.

Regardless of the state of his arm, Ace was still winning more points than he'd lost. The latest was just proof of that. Because, while Voldemort couldn't see him, he could see his pet snake floating mid-air in Ace's grip. Just as Voldemort could see the damned things' broken body after Ace snapped its head from its body. Ace knew he'd genuinely won when ghastly familiar energy escaped the snake as it had the locket. That and Voldemort looked scared. A victory in itself.

On the downside, it made for a more dangerous opponent. Voldemort had been unpredictable enough before, but now he was angry and aware, and Ace had to act instantly if he wanted to survive. Voldemort now knew that Ace was very capable of destroying his Horcruxes and had destroyed one before Voldemort's very eyes.

The battle was only going to get more difficult, but oh, Ace couldn't wipe the smile from his face as he cast the snake casually to the side. As it's limp body cracked across the ground, a taunt Ace could accomplish and a satisfying one considering he'd just tossed the man's soul to the side.

"Though, it's not nearly as satisfying when you can't hear me taunting you." Ace said as he swiped his single useful hand across his mouth. Still no blood, but there should be. He'd taken enough blows to know there should be blood. "That, and I can't stall you with anger." He added the comment as an after-thought before twisting his body to the side. The spell nearly sliced through his abdomen, and going from the look of the wall behind him, that would have been very bad.

Internally he hoped Holly hurried up just a smidge, they still had two Horcruxes to destroy before they killed Voldemort, and the man was getting more and more unhinged. Ace was beginning to worry Voldemort might just attempt to bring the roof down on their heads. But that might also be because his father most definitely would have done that by this point.

"Avada kedavra!"

Ace sighed: "You really need to learn new spells." He easily side-stepped the lethal blow, it was no more dangerous than avoiding a canon. One spell, though an instant death if touched, was not a concern. The true problem was the rapid-fire and transfiguration the man was also capable of. Thankfully for Ace the angrier Voldemort grew, the less he relayed on those more powerful spells. "I mean, talk about a one-trick seahorse-"

Something tugged his chest, and Ace gasped distracted for an instant as Voldemort hurled a literal rain of spells toward him. And they struck right where he'd been a split second before.

Suddenly Ace found he was no longer in Holly's world. Instead, he was sitting in Impel Down, as every wound he'd suffered during the battle struck him. He gasped in shocked pain as his soul suffered the blow, ever nerve lit up at once, and his muscles spasmed. But there was still no blood because not one of his injures had been done to his actual body, which remained trapped inside Impel down. Muscles still spasming Ace jerked against the chains, had he had the proper range of motion he would have tried to work the areas to soothe the pain. As it was, he couldn't reach, and he was forced still with what affective felt like a Charlie horse across his whole body.

"Shit." He exhaled and wrenched up his head to see why he'd been pulled away from Holly at such a crucial moment. As he did, he caught sight of a pair of men within the cell. One with Holly's obnoxious hair though drastically shorter and the other familiar as the same figure in Holly's photo album. Then Ace wrenched his eyes from them as someone walked in front of the cell wall. Jimbe was silent as Ace locked gazes with the warden of Impel down, Magellan. Ace shot a swift glance at Jimbe, who remained silent before she walked out.

He'd never seen Boa Hancock in person before, but he'd heard the rumors. That her powers worked in tandem with attraction. Though he gave away nothing in his expression, Ace felt a bit… smug in the knowledge that he felt nothing for the woman. Yes, she was attractive, but Holly had stolen his attention, and even without her present, she was all he cared to look at in a woman. So Ace simply stared the woman down, wondering why she was here with Magellan of all people. Why they deemed it important enough to disturb him. Why he'd been forced out of a crucial battle for a staredown with a shichibukai while Holly was utterly unaware that he was no longer able to stall Voldemort.

His expression grew darker at the moment when Boa Hancock's expression suddenly shifted. He still felt nothing, but the prisoners nearby lost their minds as she admitted her fear. He didn't find it cute, not when he'd just had Holly shaking in his arms. The chaos seemed to annoy Magellan, and Ace resisted the urge to flinch as the man's poison exploded around them as it polluted the air. On instinct, Ace held his breath- only to lose it as Hancock quickly spoke and shook his worlds on their foundations.

"Are you serious?" he demanded, unable to help himself as Hancock turned away from his cell. As his instincts warred. Because if he gave anything away to Magellan while he was there than Luffy would-

"I have no reason to lie." Hancock drawled in response, and damn if that wasn't accurate. She honestly had no reason to lie and less reason to even guess that he and Luffy were related beyond a casual acquaintance.

Hancock left, taking Magellan with her, and Ace remained chained down. Jimbe finally asked what that was all about. Ace was forced to explain while a pair of horrified ghosts exchanged a look.

"James-"

"Go." James told Sirius because there was nothing more he could do for Ace or Holly. But they could at the least watch over Ace's brother. A damned wild-card in their plans and one they all hope succeeded.

* * *

Holly raced into the vault looking for the cup and spotted it exactly where Bellatrix had left it. Another explosion rocked the bank as she hurtled forward and started to climb the shelves so she could reach it. The cup naturally had to be on the highest level, and Holly knew that any magic use to summon it to her would result in a brutal backlash because her magic and Bellatrix's had a different signature.

As she climbed, her fingers brushed against some unimportant bobble, and she heard a magical pop. Alarmed Holly shot a look at her hand and watched a bracelet fall from the shelves to strike the ground. It bounced slightly, which the fall could explain, then bounced again higher and split into two. Holly's eyes went wide as she realized there was a gemino spell on the items within Bellatrix's vault. Anything she touched would duplicate endlessly, and they would very likely hex Holly if she allowed any of the copies access to her skin.

Worse yet, another explosion rocked the bank, and a dozen items collapsed off the shelves, most of them brushing her on the way down. The speed of duplication tripled as that occurred and grossly lowered how long she had in the vault. Holly turned hurriedly back to the shelf and scrambled upward, her hand landed in a pile of coins, and it caused a literal shower of gold to knock an eerily familiar sword off one of the shelves. All it except the sword bounced and exploded into life, and it was starting to burn.

Snarling Holly jumped for the cup and snatched it firmly off the pillow it had been left on. Keeping her grip tight so she didn't lose it. Holly dropped off the shelf and rolled until she was back on her feet. She rolled through countless burning bits of metal and treasure and felt every singe of her skin. Jewelry caught on her clothing, and with her free hand, Holly snatched them free to toss them clear across the vault. As they landed, they caused more charms to go off, and she was quickly running out of room in the small room.

"Bugger-" she struggled forward, finding the copies already up to her waist and growing higher every moment- when she felt something sharp glide across the back of her ankle. Holly nearly dropped as suddenly her leg burned. She shot a look down and shot a spell at the collection by her feet. Perhaps a mistake as items of all kinds were blown everywhere to clear her path. It caused a hundred more reactions but gave her a clear view of what had cut her.

Horror slid up her spine as she realized what it was. What had happened in an instant. Because what had cut her was the sword. The very same sword Dumbledore had tried to give her in his will, the sword she'd used to slay the basilisk. Gryffindor's sword was in Bellatrix's vault it- it had been used to kill a basilisk, that snakes venom was in the-

Her leg was burning, but Holly was no longer sure that was due to the metal steadily piling over her head. Because the sword had cut her, the smallest little cut and it was infused in basilisk venom.

Holly _laughed._

That was it then, this was her last day on earth, and it had nothing due to Voldemort. Because Ace had protected her from Voldemort, but not from fate.

She stood in the mess, only briefly glancing down at her leg to see dark green lines steadily crawling up her legs. She probably had minutes left then. Tom had said it was a quick yet painful death. Holly had an idea of how much, after all, it had almost killed her when she'd been twelve. Maybe she'd been destined to die then. Perhaps it had been her denying fate back then that brought Fawkes to her… Holly doubted she'd get that lucky again.

She felt blank as she crawled free of the vault, as she struggled against the tide. As her leg burned and her body ached. Holly escaped despite that because the pain didn't matter now, just like it hadn't mattered when Ginny's life had been at risk. This was the same as then; it was her destroying a Horcrux with basilisk venom polluting her body.

Holly tripped as she left the vault, staggered and caught herself against the wall of the bank. As she did, she spotted Voldemort surging toward her. Ace was gone, something must have happened to him, he must have been pulled back to his world… but that was fine. She didn't want him to see her die.

Holly crawled to her knees and placed the cup on the floor, took her time as Voldemort flew forward, and when he was close, she brought the sword down on the damned thing. The cup caved in under the sword's power, and she glanced up to meet the red of Voldemort's eyes.

"NO!"

"…Yes." She snarled right on back in taunt.

* * *

"Send me back." Hancock and Magellan had only just left, and Ace was already searching the cell for them. The ghosts, Holly's ghosts that had sent him into her world. He couldn't deny it anymore, he knew it was her father and Sirius Black that had done it. Those two and most likely Holly's mother that had brought him to her, they offered him… offered him peace before his life ended.

He could guess their intentions but not why they'd selected him to save her, and truthfully, it didn't matter. He loved her now, and he could save her when he couldn't protect anyone else. Saving her was the least… and likely the last he could choose to do.

"Send me back!" they never took so long, why weren't they- "do it now! She needs me!"

"Ace…" Jimbe leaned forward as Ace grew as unhinged as Voldemort had just been. As he grew frantic, the longer it seemed to take. Because Voldemort was hunting Holly down that very moment, and Luffy was inside Impel down. Because his father was going to war, and all of it was his fault. If he hadn't gone after Teach then Luffy wouldn't be in Impel down, there would be no war, and someone else would be protecting Holly. Someone who actually could.

"SEND ME BACK!"

_"Can you?"_

_"I don't have anything left Rouge, I couldn't even I wanted to."_

"Ace!"

"No!" he snapped at Jimbe as his world enclosed on him, "she needs me, I have to protect her-" he had to be able to protect somebody, "she's mine- I love her-" he froze and swore. There it was, out in the open. "I love her, and I'm going to die. They're going to execute me, and that snake faced bitch is going to kill her-" Had this been what his father had felt? Had he loved Rouge as much as Ace loved Holly? Had Roger been sitting in a cell like this all those years ago? Aware that the world was looking for Rouge and him? Had he felt this sick at the thought?

"You are not going to die Ace," Jimbe straightened on the spot, "Whitebeard will never allow it,"

_"Then show me how to do it."_

_"Rouge, you don't have magic you might not even be able to-"_

_"Lily taught me how to connect them, you just need to show me how to hold the connection."_

_"Rouge-"_

_"You show me James Potter or so help me god, I'll use haki just to slap you into the next universe!"_

_"…damn alright, first-"_

"And he'll die too." Ace choked out as he felt the sensation of hands slip onto his shoulder. Wide-eyed, he turned as much as the chains would allow him to see who was behind him, and he met chocolate eyes with light pink hair. An echo of his freckles sat on a kind face, and his mother gripped his shoulders before she mouthed her wish. 'Go to her Ace, and save her so she can save you.'

"Mo-" the world twisted away.

Ace landed in a cave, landed among the after-math of a battle. Rocks fell from the ceiling as Gringott's an ancient building full of caverns slowly collapsed.

At the center of the chaos was Holly on her knees. A sword was firm in her grip, and a shattered cup lay underneath it. All the while, Holly smirked as if remembering another moment precisely like the one she was currently facing. Ace watched as Voldemort stared Holly down. As Voldemort pointed his wand at her temple. Lay it on the scar he'd given her. As he blatantly reminded her that this was not that moment, that she was not twelve, and he would not turn to dust because she'd destroyed the cup.

Holly snarled in defiance, and Voldemort's wand lit up green.

"HOLLY!" his throat shook with the scream, his vocal cords vibrating so loudly that it hurt. He dove forward like he had the first time he'd seen Holly under Voldemort's wand. He threw his body toward them and snatched hold of Voldemort's neck. The man gasped in realization, and a green light flashed at the same moment, Ace brutally jerked his hands to the side. As he snapped Voldemort's neck with his own bare hands and ended a war.

All it took was one moment, one moment that Voldemort had been entirely too focused on the girl destined to defeat him, and he was dead. His body disintegrating on the spot as Ace fell to his knees and caught Holly's limp body with shaking hands.

He didn't acknowledge the thought as her head lulled forward as he caught sight of her blank, pale green eyes. He couldn't think it. He hadn't been too late, he hadn't. He maneuvered Holly's body until she was in his arms. Until her head was pressed to his chest. Held her as the sword fell from her limp fingers. As he smiled a false broken little thing, while tears raced down his cheeks and fell into her hair.

"He's dead Holly, you won. We did it." Her head was limp, lulled without weight as he rocked her close. "We won, so… so, you don't need to learn haki now." Rocks collapsed beside him, and the single living goblin was staring at them awareness coming to him as the imperio that controlled him snapped with the casters dea- "I wrote in your book you know, I… explained how you could learn haki without me." His voice broke as he confessed the truth to her cor- to her bod- to- "I thought you could use it after I was gone because I lied to you, Holly. I don't have weeks, I have days… at best. They're going to kill me and… and I should have told you."

He couldn't sense her, he had always felt her spirit with his haki, but now he couldn't sense her. She was gone. She was dea-

Her eyes continued to stare blankly up at him, lifeless in an unmistakable way.

She was- Holly was-

Ace felt her body pulled from his arms, felt the tug as a pair of gentle hands, his mother's hands, pulled from his shoulders. He didn't look for her. Didn't react as Holly's world faded, and the cell returned. He'd failed again, failed to save the person he loved.

And something inside him, something tentative and secretly, something he held deep within his chest that could be called hope… finally shattered.

* * *

She felt the sway of a ship under her back, felt the rise and fall of the ocean, and smelled distinct scent of ocean spray as seawater struck against wood. Unfamiliar fabric coated her skin, heavy and stretched in a strange way, but it was soft, comforting somehow.

Slowly Holly's eyes fluttered open, and she found an endless sea of blue above her. Slower still, because the last she remembered was a cave, Holly pushed herself into a seated position and took in her surroundings. Her first guess was correct, even if impossible. She was on a ship with an enormous sail above her, it sat there with the skull and crossbones draw across it. The sign itself wasn't a familiar one, it looked nothing like the one Ace had tattooed on his back. Yet it inexplicably called to her, like she should know it.

And then a voice spoke up from behind her.

"Holly Lily Potter… it about time I met my future daughter-in-law."


	11. Chapter 11

His boots thudded lightly on the concrete flooring, it echoed unnaturally in the empty station, but Roger paid it little mind. He'd existed in a similar environment for years so the silence was no longer jarring on his senses. Just as the lack of his own heartbeat no longer bothered him two decades after his death. He strode through the station pausing in time to see the small soul fragment curled under a chair.

Roger clicked his tongue at it: "Fate's a bitch, isn't she." He commented to the Horcrux fragment, which would be doomed for the rest of eternity. Tom Riddle's soul would never be reunited without regret, and the man's mind was too far gone to feel anything close to regret. Riddle would be trapped within the in-between for the rest of time, forced there as hundreds of thousands of souls passed him and went on.

Yes, Fate definitely was a bitch of a lass.

Roger dismissed the Horcrux and moved on, striding along the paths within King's Cross until he found the spot he knew she would arrive, there he waited. Waited not for her, but for him. Albus Dumbledore, ah, now that man had made some enemies among the dead. But few could do a thing against him. Lily and James had chosen to remain spirits, and unfortunately, Dumbledore would be long gone by the time they moved 'on.' They could not punish the man for what he'd done, they couldn't do a thing to stop Dumbledore from cornering Holly in the in-between.

But Roger could.

He'd watched Ace and Holly's lives in his spare time, he knew what Ace's little soon-to-be-wife had suffered because of Albus Dumbledore's mistakes. And Roger also knew the damage Dumbledore would do to Holly's soul should they meet again. Damage that Ace had unknowingly spent weeks repairing. Roger had no intention of allowing Dumbledore to ruin his son's hard work. So when the man appeared moments before Holly did, Roger didn't waste a second.

He did as Holly desired, and punched the fucker in the throat.

Dumbledore hit the ground with the force of Roger's strike, which he'd hadn't pulled in the slightest. It wasn't like the man could die again, nor could he fall unconscious. The ground cracked under the man's crumpled body, and he screamed. Roger watched on unimpressed as it took the man hours, in spiritual time anyway, to get back up again.

"Who… who are you?" Dumbledore finally panted as he returned to his feet.

Roger wondered if it was an act or if he was truly clueless. He had to assume the former considering Roger had no rested until he knew everything about his opponent. He didn't answer regardless, instead Roger said: "you've made enemies of the wrong people old man, did you not realize the dead would find a way to gain their revenge?"

"Enemies?" Dumbledore recoiled slightly, still playing the innocent old mentor, Rouge would be infuriated by that, then again, she had been the quicker of them to rise in anger. "Perhaps I have, but I accept that. That is why I'm here, to atone-" he was like a damned noblewoman this one, Roger thought, before cutting him off.

"Oh, stuff it." Roger picked his position carefully and noted Dumbledore was not aware of where Roger was standing and why he'd chosen that spot. A mistake in his man's case and one Roger intended to take advantage of. "I couldn't care less about your atonement," he also doubted 'atonement' was the reason Dumbledore was within the in-between, Roger suspected instead that it was punishment. Dumbledore likewise probably assumed Roger was in the in-between for precisely that, he wasn't, he'd made a deal for his kid. Not that Dumbledore needed to know that.

"I could also care less about this conversation, but I'm aware of four particular individuals that would just love to let you have it. They, unfortunately, cannot. So now it's my job." He straightened and lazily grabbed hold of his haki. Truthfully he didn't need it, but oh, was it ever satisfying to see such a prideful figure brought down by just Roger's willpower. Slowly, not wanting to overwhelm too soon to ruin the message he had, Roger dropped Dumbledore to his knees. Watching the man crash to the floor, Roger furrowed his brows, there was less power in his haki than in his punch, and it was surprising to see the man drop regardless. It seemed he may have over overestimated the man a touch.

Roger cleared his throat to cover to say quite simply: "You fucked up." He started with that because if the man had any consciousness at all, this would strike a brutal blow. "Holly did not need to die, within your reach and hers, within even that man Snape's grip was a dozen different ways for her to survive the removal of the Horcrux. And even without its removal, there was a dozen other paths to defeat Riddle without her death."

"The prophecy-"

"Come on now, you really think you can pull that on me?" Roger dropped more force on the man's spine, direct opposition to the smile he had stretched across his lips, "that prophecy was utter bullshit you planted because you were losing that war. You can't pull that shit with me." Lily and James had no idea that fact, but Roger knew precisely the circumstances of their deaths, and it wasn't needed. Dumbledore had set them up, planted and sowed the path of Voldemort's first defeat. Three souls, six if you counted the Longbottom's, for countless in response to civil war. And then had forced Holly to suffer through hell to ensure that 'victory' stuck.

Perhaps the revolutionaries and that Dragon kid would have approved of Dumbledore's methods. Roger certainly didn't, but then he had a vested interest in Holly Potter's life, happiness, and survival. That girl was attached to his son, that girl would actively save Ace's life, and Roger was feeling particularly attached to her.

"I did not intend for Holly to-"

Roger snarled, finally finding his anger. He dropped his haki onto Dumbledore until it was impossible for the man to speak and finish his sentence. He'd thought the man would drop the act early in the conversation, he should have known better.

"Your negligence is the reason Miss Potter to this day flinches when she's hugged. Why she always hides a little bit of food away in case she cannot get any more. Why she panics when she's left in spaces too small to stand. You did not check on your own ward after killing her parents, and she has countless scars because of it, physical and emotional. You do not get to tell me you didn't know. You didn't care to look." Roger would not abide by hearing that. His own son had suffered, but he'd never looked away from it. He'd watched over Ace from the in-between because that was all he could do after his failure. After his plan brutally backfired in Rouge's death and Ace being raised so isolated.

"It is a direct cause of your secrets and your choices that Holly was convinced she had to die and its by only the grace of the dead that she knows better." Roger felt the shift in the air and knew he was running out of time. He hoped Rouge, Lily, James, and Sirius would be satisfied enough with that. He hoped Ace would be as well once he was finally told the extent of what Holly suffered. Hopefully, without her downplaying it too much.

Dumbledore suddenly straightened his spine, forced back against Roger's haki; "you have no idea what I carried boy," he took a shot at Roger's age but Roger found it easy to brush off. Instead he acknowledged what the man had also revealed. Albus Dumbledore may have been watching over Holly, but he had not gone so far as to look into Ace as Roger had looked into Holly. Roger had the advantage once again. "you have no idea the circumstance and the lives in my hands. I weighed them, I had to weight them and I made my choice and as I said, I am prepared to atone for that. I know that child suffered-"

"The boy did as well." Roger commented idly, interrupted as if it were an after thought. It wasn't. Roger had planned this move from the get-go, not because he cared, but because he understood people, he could hear their souls, he saw the voice in all things. Roger knew the exact points to push, always had and that boy was one of them.

"Boy?" Dumbledore had straightened completely, was trying to regain lost ground. He'd wasn't going to reclaim it, not when Roger was a dozen steps ahead and Dumbledore did not even know Roger's name.

"Tom Marvolo Riddle." He'd spotted the fragment below the bench and he'd seen. From that brief glimpse Roger knew he could plant the entire war, and the creation of Voldemort, solely at Dumbledore's feet. And he would have, if he had the time.

"Now see here-" Dumbledore claimed a step, just one, "you… who even are you to speak as if you know anything about it."

Dumbledore continued, Roger was relatively sure he'd do so for awhile but he was out of time, shame, perhaps he'd come back later to finish the job. But his priorities had already changed. Roger took a step back, just one so that when Holly appeared, he could grab her to remove her from the presence of this toxic being. Then he allowed a smirk to touch his face and offered a flourishing bow that put his hand close to the ground: "Gol D. Roger, former king of the pirates."

Holly appeared in a flash of light behind him, her soul weak and still unconscious because of the trauma of her death. Realization flickered in Dumbledore's eyes, but oh, it was much too late. Roger sank fully to his knees, his already lowered arm scooping under her back. Then he lifted her straight off the ground, barely allowing her soul to touch King's Cross. Finally Roger offered a cheery: "and Holly Potter's father in law… tah mate." He mocked the man's accent with the last word and vanished with Holly right along with him.

A world away, he landed on his ship and gently placed Holly's soul on the deck. He ensured she was properly clothed aware she wouldn't have the mind to dress herself until she was fully conscious. Then, he settled in to wait. It could take some time he knew; the more hurt a soul was by their death, the longer it would take and Holly… the poison in her veins had been a brutal death even if it truly ended with the killing curse.

Roger still idly watched her and wondered if she'd notice when she woke up. If she'd notice that he didn't breathe, that his heart didn't beat… but she did, and hers would be. The souls that came to him to be ferried on were dead, their hearts didn't move at all, and the automatic habit of taking in breath faded at the same time. Those souls had to be reminded to breathe just as they were encouraged to wear clothes lest they burn out his eyes. But Holly wasn't completely dead, so her heartbeat and her breath kept coming.

Holly was a tiny thing, but she was a survivor. He knew without a doubt that she'd thrive in the blues, thrive as a pirate. Rules were not meant for this girl who'd grown up continuously under another's thumb. It would be fascinating to watch her come into her own when she could answer for her own life.

He looked down at Holly as she slowly began to stir and mumbled to himself: "Ah, kid, what a pirate you're going to make; you're going to take that world by storm, and I can't wait to see it."

* * *

Rouge couldn't handle it; Lily's screams as they realized they were too late, couldn't handle the woman's anguish as she realized they'd failed. The absolute collapse of a woman so strong because of their failure. Rouge… she'd thought maybe that wonderful young woman was fine. Only to be brutally slapped in the face by Ace's grief and realization. He'd known the truth immediately, even if his words said otherwise. He knew just as she had when they announced Roger's… how long had she spent staring out to the sea that night trying to convince herself it was a lie-

A split second, she'd been a split second too slow. If only she'd asked sooner. If only she'd learned how to move Ace to Holly's world before she'd needed it. She'd failed her son and daughter; because Holly was her daughter, and now she was dead.

Rouge pressed her back to the walls of Ace's cell and cradled her head in her hands. She kept her eyes open, focused on the rise and fall of Ace's chest because he was alive when Holly was- She focused on his breath, instead of closing her eyes and seeing Holly's corpse in Ace's arms while he shattered. Rouge watched her son breathe instead of picturing the stillness in Holly's being. A being that had been fluttering with hope and light before.

God, they had been so proud of her. Holly had come so far so quickly; she'd been actively resisting her death and hoped for her future. She'd grown so much, they both had and now…

Rouge crawled forward and placed her hand close to Ace's heart. She couldn't feel his skin, but it was almost like she could feel his heart-beat. It was better than what James and Lily had. James and Lily… James had vanished after Rouge pulled her hands from Ace's shoulders. Had vanished the moment he caught the horrified expression on her face. And Lily, Lily, was likely still at Holly's side, still screaming when Rouge had pulled Ace away.

"Hell-" Rouge grimaced as she realized Sirius was still clueless to what happened. James had sent Sirius after Luffy, sent him to watch over Ace's brother because they all should have been able to handle Ace and Holly without him. He had no idea she was dead… and she was the only one who could tell him. But if she left… Ace only had so much time remaining before-

Rouge didn't know what to do.

Ace hadn't moved since she'd pulled him back, hadn't even taken a full breath. He was blank, his face emotionless. He stared into space, and to Jimbe looked like he was still a world away, and he was, but not in the same way. He... he was likely reliving it again and again in his head. Repeating his failure over and over, and convincing himself that, once again, he didn't deserve to be saved. And once more there was nothing Rouge could do, they were back to square one… no, they were worse off now. Because Ace hadn't lost the love of his life before. They were far worse off, and Rouge wasn't sure if she regretted it or not.

Had she regretted Roger when she'd known he was dead? It had broken her, but she'd had Ace, she'd lived for Ace as long as she could. Eventually… eventually, if she'd survived, she might have been able to find new love... but it would never have been the same. Roger had been her soulmate, and Ace had just lost his.

The realization was a terrifying one because Rouge suddenly had a feeling that Ace was not going to fight. He was shattered by this, and he would likely just let them execute- his only hope, her only hope now was Luffy. Luffy, one teenage rookie against the absolute power of the marines.

"Oh, Roger… what do I do?" she dropped her head into her hands

Footsteps echoed down the hall. Rouge wrenched her head from her hands to look. How long had it been? Maybe it was just a patrolling guard. Hopefully, not one that would try and hurt Ace more, like the others had. Jimbe, from the corner of her eye, shifted. They both turned to look as Magellan and his guards appeared before the cell.

It was nine on the dot. It was time.

Rouge surged to her feet and bodily placed herself between them and Ace despite knowing it would do no good. Not one of them could see her. She was back to square zero and no longer had even Sirius, James, or Lily to back her up.

"Well then, Portgas D Ace, I hereby take you into custody for transportation to your execution ground, Marineford."

"No!" she yelled in denial once again alone and helpless. She surged forward as the guards entered the cell, as Ace limply gave himself up. She clawed at the guard's heads, spat at Magellan, and screamed every curse she knew.

But nothing happened because she was dead. She was dead and gone, useless…

There was nothing she could do.

* * *

"Holly Lily Potter… it about time I met my future daughter-in-law."

She snapped her body around when Holly heard the voice from behind her. Hands planted on the wood below her, she found herself staring at a pair of thick leather boots. From there, she slowly looked up along a set of long legs, a bright red cloak, a firm chest, to the oddest mustache she'd ever seen. It was a man, a tall man who stood behind her. Holly lifted her eyes from the bizarre mustache to his eyes and felt her lips press together. There was something familiar about this man, but she couldn't even begin to place why.

The familiarity of him niggled at her brain when he smiled at her. It only grew when he offered her a hand, which she accepted, and he pulled her to her feet. Holly released a short gasp at how easily he tugged her to her feet. As she stood, she glanced at his hand holding her on and quickly pulled it back, she didn't mind the contact, but the growing familiarity of him was making her incredibly unnerved. Taking a step back, she focused on the color of his messy hair, the shade, the shape of his eyes, and the way he stood casually before her.

"I was right then," Holly finally said as she took in the lack of motion at his chest, he wasn't breathing and her last moments clicked. "I'm dead, this is the afterlife."

Holly looked away from him, secure in the knowledge that he couldn't do anything to her.

Holly's earlier guess was correct; she was on a ship floating lazily in the ocean. The water around them was calm, eerily so. It was like the surface of a mirror, untouched without a single ripple to be seen. Even her movements on the ship didn't effect the waters' surface. Looking out on the horizon, Holly saw no islands and no other vessels. The boat was the only thing out there, it and the water and the endless untouched cloudless blue sky.

Her eyes slid toward the ocean itself, and she took a slight step toward it. Would she be able to see motion down there? Would she see what was under the surface- a hand lightly gripped her arm and tugged her to a stop.

"Better not." The man spoke up firmly and the desire to look dispersed. "Many a man has gone mad, witnessing what lives beneath us."

"Right…" she shook herself and refocused on him as he continued now secured in the knowledge that she wasn't going to look.

"And not quite."

"Not quite?" Holly echoed as the man looked her up and down, searching for something, perhaps a reaction to the fact that she was dead.

"This isn't the afterlife," He elaborated, "No, this is the in-between. It has many forms, some better than obviously. If others had had their way, you would have seen this place as your train station, and the one to greet you would have been a shitty old man." Roger smirked victoriously, "but I'm a pirate, and I stole you for myself."

The sentence echoed in her brain, and finally, it clicked. Holly suddenly choked and pointed a finger right at the space between his brows. "You're Ace's dad!" she gasped out. Now that Holly had seen it, she couldn't unsee it. It was like a slap to the face, she could see so much of Ace in this man. But he wasn't, as so many people told her, a carbon copy. He had his differences, and Holly could only imagine those came from Ace's mother.

"You got there eventually," He teased her by patting her on the head, Merlin, the man was tall compared to her. When he got close, she had to look up at him in a drastic way. "I'll excuse the slowness considering your recent demise." Holly flinched, and he didn't even seem to notice, "I am Gol D. Roger, and I've come to lead you on."

"D?" Holly tilted her head slightly unnerved by Roger, she had a feeling he knew a lot more than he was letting on, "D like death? Are you… you can't be…" She'd heard the story of Death and the three brothers. She knew Death was an active person in that story, but he couldn't be- well, she was dead now, so it was possible she was meeting Death for real. It was possible Death could be using the face of Ace's dad to communicate with her.

"Death? I suppose you could see it that way. But no, I'm not Death… just a meddler in the grand scheme of the Gods' plans," He chuckled as if she'd made some big cosmic joke, but it went a bit over her head. So Holly changed the subject.

"What do you mean you stole me? And who from?"

"The 'shitty old man,' didn't give that away?"

Holly shook her head, curls swinging.

Roger to that offered her a single name: "Albus Dumbledore."

Oh.

He stole her from Dumbledore, prevented her from speaking to him in the afterlife. From answering the hundreds of questions she had for him, questions that grew after meeting Ace. That piled up for everything she learned about herself. Holly had never gotten the chance to ask Dumbledore anything, to know when he found out what she was. If he'd even tried to find a way for her to survive. If Dumbledore had… if he'd really wanted her to die. The idea that he might have burned in her chest had she been alive the knowledge might very well have pushed her over the edge. She'd trusted him, and she trusted so few people.

Holly wanted to scream and cry and rage at the world, at him for doing this do her. But Ace, he would have just wanted to-

"I wanted to punch him in the throat," Holly told Roger, holding back the truth. That it rankled at her that she'd never know the truth. That she'd just have to get over that just like she'd gotten over everything else. Alone.

"Good girl," Roger reached forward and pumped her shoulder, subtly testing her reactions to touch. He was pleasantly surprised, considering her history, when Holly didn't flinch. She personally suspected it was due to the resemblance to Ace he carried, but she didn't feel the need to jerk back or away from Roger. "Never let anyone dictate your life… or afterlife as the case may be… that and, you don't have to worry, he definitely got one of those." The man flexed his fingers smugly, and Holly felt herself grin, unable to help it. He really was a lot like Ace, and perhaps that was why, instinctively, she liked him.

"Why'd you steal me from him anyway?"

Roger stretched his arms out like a showman and told her a half-truth: "Because this is the in-between."

He stepped backward slightly, and Holly followed him, unaware she was doing so. Roger took the time to listen to her soul as she did. It was damaged but not too severely, proximity with her soulmate, with Ace, had repaired a lot of what she'd suffered. Still, there was a brutal tear where she was connected to Ace. Roger looked closer, noting the tear had not come from her side, it was torn because Ace believed he'd lost her forever. The rip was his soul crying out in loss. It hurt Roger to see, though he took relief in the knowledge that the wound would thankfully heal once he sent Holly back to him.

Lazily Roger leaned back against the railing of his ship, and Holly stopped in front of him, curious and trusting. That was a bit refreshing, few people trusted him due to what he was and what the ship was. Roger hadn't seen such an expression in a kid her age since… hm, probably that kid a few years back who'd wanted to be a pirate. It made him glad that Ace's little soulmate was willing to hear him out. He was certain Ace wouldn't do the same, not with all the harsh words Ace had heard about Roger over the years, not after everything Ace suffered because of who Roger was.

Clearing his throat, Roger pushed away that particular thought and started to explain. He didn't have forever with Holly, and he had to keep that mind, even if he wanted to ask her a thousand questions and give her a hundred messages for Ace and Rouge. "Within this place, souls are offered a choice. This is where you choose to become a ghost, choose to wait, or choose to go 'on.'"

Holly's sucked in a sharp breath automatically, and Roger smothered his smirk to that, he'd been right, she hadn't noticed she was breathing.

"What does that mean? On?"

"Can't tell you that," his nose scrunched in sheer displeasure, "one of the rules.'"

"Oh, I bet you just hate that there are rules." She sassed him unable to stop herself, and Roger's eyes darted to the sky as he dramatically rolled them showing her without words that she was both correct, and that he didn't mind her sass. It had to grate on Roger endlessly, that he had to listen to the gods in this place. Especially after a lifetime of piracy and running toward the goal of being the freest in the world.

To distract himself from it, Roger reached over and ruffled her hair like he'd so often done to Shanks and Buggy. Like he'd longed to do to Ace.

Rouge… she'd always said he'd been destined to be a father, always told him that he made her 'ovaries do stupid things' when he'd interacted with the kids on different islands. In the end, though, he'd been a father… but not a dad, no matter how much he'd wanted to get a taste of that particular adventure. Another thing that damned Newgate got on him.

"So it's just 'on' then." Holly mused as pulled away from his hand, unsure how to handle the easy affection. He didn't mind, Holly had never had a parent despite the set watching over her. She did not know what to do with his offering. "And… waiting? Can you tell me about that? Or are you not allowed that either."

"Hmm," he crossed his arms and cast a look at the skies. Clear still, he had time. "That is what your parents and my lovely wife Rouge decided on." Which ought to be explanation enough if she was as clever as he thought she was. Rouge watched her brows pinch, then clarity hit. Yup, she'd gotten the connection, so he continued to say, "it's sort of in between the two options, you're not trapped as a ghost for the rest of eternity… no idea why anyone picks that nonsense," he rolled his eyes, "but it's not 'on' either. It's… people who pick it typically have loved ones they left behind that they can want to watch over, and when those loved ones pass, they move on."

"All the odd things that happened to me, that was mum and dad wasn't it?" her eyes grew wet and her cheeks pinked in emotion, "they were watching over me… are they…" she looked away from him, unable to look into his face to ask her next question, "were they the reason Ace…?"

"The reason Ace came to you?" he probed gently, "Yes. Ace coming to you was a result of a pair of meddling females. For some odd reason, they didn't want their children to die and thought, well, perhaps a soulmate could help."

Holly choked on air and still didn't notice she needed it. Not as she spun on the spot wide-eyed and shocked as she looked right at Roger. "What?!" she demanded, unable to believe what he'd just offered as an off-hand comment.

"Surely you sensed it?" he was playing the fool entirely too amused by her reactions. It was refreshing, a soul who didn't kick and scream and beg him to send them back. Someone who didn't try to pitch themselves over the edge of the ship into the cursed waters below.

"I didn't think soulmates were real! That's book stuff, fairy-tales!" Holly stared at her hands, looking between them at a hurried pace as her mind sped along. Ace was her… Ace was her- he was-

"Tom Riddle split his soul seven different times, and you didn't think soulmates were possible?"

Holly blushed hard in embarrassment. She nodded, still avoiding his eyes and felt… felt tears build at the corners of her eyes. Because Ace was her soulmate and her mum and dad had brought him to her to give her hope, and she'd… she'd still died. She'd left Ace alone and hadn't even finished Voldemort off.

She'd failed so badly.

Roger continued to chat despite her brain mentally crashing. "A good decision on their part, I think… considering Ace finished off that man for you. Pity he had to see you die to do it."

"He what?" her head brutally snapped up, in an instant, she was right in front of Roger staring at him. Suddenly him seeing her reactions didn't matter; none of it did because Ace had- oh Merlin. What he must be feeling. She'd wanted so badly to ensure he never saw that happen to her, had known it would hurt him long before she fell for him, and he'd seen- Holly should have expected it. She couldn't believe it hadn't occurred to her. Of course Ace had killed Voldemort, finished the job for her, he was just like that!

Roger, as if uncaring to his own child's pain continued on: "And then poor Rouge had to bring him back to Impel Down convinced the love of his life was dead, but worse yet he'll soon be sent to his execution… and he probably won't fight it either. Not with his soulmate dead." There was the hint of an accusation there, and Holly cowed back as she felt it hit.

Roger felt a fissure of guilt for that; he did not want to hurt Holly Potter, did not want her to dislike him, and wanted less to manipulate her as Dumbledore did. He could tell himself, comfort himself in the knowledge that he was doing it for her own good. But Roger was not Albus Dumbledore. He was manipulating her with the knowledge he had, Roger was doing so because he needed her to make a specific choice. That was on him, and Roger had to accept that.

On top of that, Roger truly did feel frustrated with her and Ace both. As hard as it was, if they'd trusted each other with the full information faster, then Ace and Holly wouldn't be suffering in this manner. If she'd trusted Ace to know she was a Horcrux, he could have done something about that. Ace was a smart man, a captain in his own right. He would have had a plan. Now though, Ace was going to just walk to his death without fighting- and she was the key to ensuring that did not happen, and he had to ensure she took it. Because she would gain a second chance that Ace never would.

He needed her to make that choice.

"Y- how- you can't just-" Holly sputtered in horror, the horror that Ace's father was commenting these things so nonchalantly as if he didn't care.

He did, by the gods above he did, but now was not the time to convince her of that. "Now, obviously we won't be allowing that." Roger pushed off from the railing and leaned down until they were face to face, "so, in the choice between on, waiting, a ghost… or returned to life… I assume you'd prefer the latter, no?"

Lily and Rouge started the ball rolling, James and Sirius nudged it toward the correct path and Roger… he'd ensure it ended in the right hole. Five deceased parents to a pair of self-sacrificing morons that needed all the help they could possibly get.

"What?" Holly was definitely feeling pitchy now, but no one ought to blame her, considering the madness that was Gol D. Roger.

"Do you accept?" he grabbed her by the shoulders, "well?"

"I don't even know what I'm accepting."

"Come on, Potter, you're a smart girl. You've been paying attention."

"I was poisoned, I'm dead- I can't just-" Roger caught hold of her hand suddenly, pulled it toward him firmly, and pointed at her middle finger. He twisted her hand until she was staring at the object there, and she froze. It was a ring, Tom Riddle's ring. It sat snuggly on her finger as if it had always belonged there, and Holly gaped.

Roger, with hands still firm on hers, stared her down: "Who said? Your body is already healing,"

"That's not possible-"

"You're magic girl." He shook her hands, frustrated with her, "you breathe even though it should be impossible, your heart beats even after your death." He nudged her hand upward, took hold of her index figures, and forced her fingers to her pulse point. There was a breath too long to be a normal one, and then there was a thump under her fingertips. Her heart was beating, it was slow, but it was there. "That wand of yours is already repairing your body." Holly flexed her ankle, felt the pull of pain, but it was dulled. "That ring, it calls your soul back to your body even now." And she could feel it, a tug at her naval that was far weaker than any portkey. "That cloak, that gift from the past hides you. No reaper will ever locate you, not unless you allow them too. Its magic protects you from their sight."

"The hallows," Holly stared down at Gol D. Roger as it clicked. It was impossible, so impossible because Dumbledore's wand was in Voldemort's hands, and it had been Ace that killed him, but… no, Draco disarmed Dumbledore hadn't he, and she'd disarmed Draco. She had the wand's allegiance, she had the cloak passed from her father, and she even had the ring- the stone because Dumbledore passed it to her. She had the powers of the hallows, the power to master death.

"I'm… I'm not in Ace's world," Holly argued, unsure why she was, because she wanted. Gods above how she wanted what Roger was telling her to be the truth.

"I stole you." Roger dismissed her concern, "should you accept, you'll end up in my world, in his world. Unless you'd prefer to go back to yours?" If that was true, he'd be honestly shocked and highly disappointed in the girl. He'd been rather convinced she wouldn't hesitate, but perhaps he'd taken her character incorrectly.

"No!" Holly gasped recoiling slightly, her hand tugged in his grip, but he did not release it. "If I had the choice…" she trailed off suddenly as it hit her. She could. Roger was actually offering her the option. "You're telling me… you're actually telling me that I can? That I return?"

He released her hands to knock her head firmly on the head, "a bit slow, aren't you, good thing my son is quick."

"Oh my god." Roger wasn't kidding. The Horcrux within her was gone, Voldemort was dead, and… and she could be with Ace. She could actually- tears filled her eyes and Holly suddenly threw herself at Ace's father. She embraced him effortlessly as if she'd initiated countless hugs before as if physical touch was no big deal to her. Truthfully though, at that moment, it wasn't. "Do it! Do it, do it, do it!"

Roger laughed, plucking her from her feet to properly hug her. He swung her small form in a circle giving her the embrace he longed to offer Ace. When the turn ended, Roger set Holly back on her feet and dropped his head close to her ear. Then, he did something he knew he'd get in trouble for. It was against one of the rules, after all. He'd suffer the consequences for it, but it didn't matter.

"Watch out for Akainu," he urged Holly as she tensed up in his grip, "don't let that man anywhere near Ace if you want him to live. Fate is a stingy bitch, and that man will stop at nothing to end my line. Never let him close." He pulled back and watched her eyes fly wide in alarm.

"Wha-"

He gave her no chance to ask, gave them no chance to stop him either.

Roger shoved Holly backward away from him. Pushed her right off her feet and sent her tumbling backward, she fell arms pinwheeling to catch herself. But the ground never came. Holly continued to fall and fall and fall. Far past the ship, beyond the water, endlessly backward until Roger was long gone. His satisfied expression fading away as she fell.

Onward Holly fell, back and back until she was certain she'd be falling for the rest of eternity. However, the moment she thought it, she landed. Her feet struck stone, and her knees immediately gave out. Holly tripped while trying to compensate for how far backward she'd fallen and ended up her hands and knees, her fingers cut into roughened stone while within her palm, she felt the familiar sensation of a wand. Holly shot a look at her hand and furrowed her brow, Roger had told her she owned it, but she was still surprised to find Dumbledore's old wand in her hands. Especially since Voldemort had been using it before her death.

A sense of revulsion hit Holly as that thought occurred. Her stomach rebelled against the idea, rolling unpleasantly, and Holly sat up to throw it away from her- when she noticed where she was.

Impel down. The place Ace's body had been kept while his spirit raced across the world with her. It was a cruel looking place, the temperature was worse than the dungeons at Hogwart's during the dead of winter. The walls were blackened with dirt and blood. In the distance, she could hear screaming, mad cries, and pained ones all mixed up together to make her skin crawl. It was not a place she'd ever wanted to visit, but- slowly Holly pushed to her feet, automatically tightening her grip on her wand. Ace was here, he was in this place and needed help. Holly couldn't and didn't dare to toss away her only weapon as long as he needed her help. She fought back the feeling in her stomach and firmed her grip as she cast her first spell with the thing: "Point me, Portgas D. Ace." It spun in her fingers danced along her palm. The wood circled once, twice, then pointed left and up slightly. That was where Ace was.

"Right." Holly looked down the hall, and then started jogging forward- "ah!"

She staggered on her feet, winced as she put pressure on her left ankle, and shot a look down as her legs nearly buckled. This wasn't the dulled pain from the in-between Holly realized. Roger had said her body was healing, but it was far from 'healed.' There was still basilisk poison in her veins, the sign of them blatant in the deep green veins of discoloring racing up her ankle. Holly grabbed her jeans slightly and pulled the leg as far as she could. The veins climbed up her legs all the way up to her thigh from the feeling of it. As she watched, the shortest of them slowly faded, the poison was leeching away, her wound was healing. But it would not be a quick thing.

"Healing, but not healed." She said to herself. It would take time to heal from the wound entirely, but that didn't honestly surprise her. Even when Fawkes healed her during her second year, it had taken days for the basilisk venom to completely leave her system. She'd spent days in the infirmary just throwing up from both the pain and the poison ravaging her system. Not to mention some of the lines remained even after the poison faded, thankfully they'd been removed by Madam Pomfrey's magic once Holly was able to handle solid food. Holly suspected she'd be keeping those lines considering she no longer had access to a magical healer.

Holly would be in pain for the near future, every step would be agonizing. She'd be forced to walk on the leg until she could rest. Forced to ignore it until Ace was safe.

Holly grimaced, just another thing to deal with. One more scar to add to her collection. She'd not let it bother her. She wouldn't. Holly instead stood and pushed herself, she started a loose jog forward-moving slowly. She looked Forward and kept her head on a swivel. She ran like Ace had taught her to do so. Because he was now her measuring stick to the powers of his world and Ace was fast. He moved faster than she could believe people could truly move, which meant those currently keeping him imprisoned had to be faster. These people were dangerous, as dangerous as Voldemort, and Holly refused to forget that. She could not fair, she had to be careful, and she had to succeed.

She'd accept nothing less.

Holly passed cages of various sizes, from some that could hold Hagrid to those that would hold ten Gwap's. Those particular cages were ridiculous, but from the dark shapes she could catch within them they were needed. Oddly though, Holly didn't fear the people inside those cages. Giants were slow, easily avoided if you were quick. The men in the regular-sized cells had to be close to Ace in strength and most likely were a great deal less kind than Ace was. They would be the ones to watch for.

"What's a sweet thing like you doing out here?"

"Oh, I'd love to cut up that skin."

"I'll make your scream for me gorgeous."

"If you just-"

"Let me go-"

Holly's skin crawled as she followed the point-me spell down the halls. She tried not to listen to the catcalls, some sexual, but the rest a great deal more violent than that. The people within the cells' here, they intended all manner of cruelties toward her. Holly nearly paused a few times, she couldn't help but think about Sirius as she passed these people. About the fact that her innocent godfather had been tortured to years because of a failing government. Were there people within Impel Down that were the same? Ace was one clear case, a good man being executed for reasons beyond her understanding.

"Let me out-"

"Find the keys-"

"Come here, baby-"

Holly turned away. She didn't have the time to judge them, didn't have to knowledge to honestly decide if they should be there or not. Holly was there for one man and one man only.

"Roger could have put me in front of his cell." She muttered as a distant scream echoed down the halls of the prison. Holly turned a sharp corner as the voice bounced along the halls. She frowned as another followed it. They were coming from the location she was running to. It made her slightly paranoid; it didn't sound like Ace… but. Holly shook it off and cast another point-me to ensure she was heading in the right direction and frowned.

Skidding to a stop and causing her leg to brutally protest, Holly stared at her wand. The direction of the point-me had changed; it was now pointing up. That meant Ace was moving. "Morgana's tits, how long was I dead for?" she cried. Were the marines they already moving him?! Holly put on a boost of speed and immediately ran into a problem as she passed a cleverly hidden door.

She was halfway past a random empty wall when it opened, and a dozen men and women in uniform piled out brandishing weapons in her direction. Her immediate thought was that she'd tripped some kind of monitoring ward. But no, this was Ace's world. It had different technology, different ways to locate people, and for all Holly knew she was currently on camera.

Guards poured out toward her as she slowed herself to a stop. They gestured at her, and one yelled out: "Halt! Identify yourself!"

"Err, no thank you." Holly dipped her head a bit as if she truly regretted that. Then, she flicked the elder wand toward them. Ace had taught her much when it came to fighting the people of his world, they'd sparred enough that she knew a single spell wouldn't help her much. Ace could dodge one spell without effort but rapid-fire? That actually forced him to properly dodge. So Holly released a barrage of bright red spells without warning, as she did she darted backward placing distance between herself and them. Rapid-fire spells, simple ones, shields, and space were her friends, especially against a non-haki user.

The guards dropped, not one was left standing by the time it took Holly to move back slightly, and she paused. None of them dodged like she'd expected. Her stupefy's had taken them down. Holly tentatively assumed it meant the typical guards were weaker than Ace. She rearranged her internal strength level list. It left Ace leading on top, Voldemort sitting below him, and Holly sitting below that to tie with maybe Dumbledore.

Holly stepped forward, walking over the bodies so she could spell the door they'd come through closed. She'd rather not be attacked by a second wave from behind. As she did, she offered a cheery apology to their stunned bodies. They were just stunned after all, they were perfectly aware while paralyzed.

"-Where are yooouuuu…." The voice from earlier echoed down the halls with far more clarity. It was once again coming from the direction she was heading, but now it was clearer, much clearer.

Holly continued along the halls and shot a look behind her to check to make sure no one was coming up from that direction. No one was, but she did catch the unfortunate eyes of one of the prisoners within Impel down. The man was covered in bloodied wounds, fresh and old, which made the blatant mistreatment clear. The prisoners were physically beaten, starved, and tortured, and Holly was trying very hard not to think about Ace would look considering the bloodied wounds she'd caught on him.

"ACE WHERE ARE YOU!?" That was the clearest yell yet and the name used… she wasn't alone in rescuing Ace.

Holly turned directions with her wand finding a dead end and internally swore. She was right, Ace was being moved, and she had no short cut to him. Holly couldn't apparate to his side without a clear view of his location. Nor could she fly straight there because she didn't have a broom. Not to mention she still didn't know who Akainu was and why Roger thought to warn her about him.

"Bugger." Holly rounded a few cages as she caught the tail end of a collection of people. None of them wore the uniforms the guards had, which was comforting, though she also had never seen, in her life, an odder dressed group, and she'd been to the quidditch world cup. On the upside, they were taking out every guard on their path, a path that led in the same direction Holly was going. Holly joined the end of the line, was accepted easily enough in her half Muggle, half magical clothes.

Running along with the group, Holly shot a look at her wand, pointing firmly upward now, then looked to the head of the pack… and spotted a man. A floating figure, half see-through, was running a step behind a teen with messy black hair and a straw hat. The teen, well she didn't care that much about, because the man was unmistakable, if impossible.

"Sirius?!" Holly cried out, and the figure stopped dead to spin on the spot.

"Holly?!" he yelled, equally shocked.

"What are you doing here?!" they then both yelled as Sirius spun on the spot, charging toward her at the end of the group. They met in the middle of the prison, and Sirius moved to give her a jumping hug, like a dog welcoming their person home, and he passed straight through her body to hit the ground on the other side. Holly tripped slightly before realizing what happened, Sirius was a spirit just like Roger had told her.

"Sirius, why are you here?" she asked as the man recovered nicely from his fall to bounce up to her.

"Oh! Ace, we're here for him. Luffy, Ace's brother, is trying to save him- wait, how did you even get here yourself? Nope doesn't matter! Ace is so close, you gotta go get him. Hurry!" he flailed his hand at her as if he wanted to physically push her into action, and he pointed her toward the cell that the group had just reached.

Holly shot Sirius a disgruntled look annoyed by the rushing. Then she dismissed it, he was right, they could talk later; Ace came first. So Holly spun and raced after the large group heading for Ace, only… she knew he wouldn't be there. Ace had already been taken.

"He's not here?" came an exhausted voice as Holly caught up and bypassed the group entirely to rush toward the lift. Her wand already told her to go up, so up she'd go. Sirius, however, stopped not knowing Ace had already been taken.

"He's gone?! What the- Rouge! Rouge where are you?!" Sirius started to yell while finally giving Holly a name for Ace's mother, who was involved in this whole mess. Holly assumed the woman must have been at Ace's side, a good thing, Ace deserved someone to be. Sirius rounded back toward Holly, who was already halfway toward the lift, he rushed after her assuming she knew what she was doing. A step behind him, though he couldn't see Sirius, was Luffy.

"He's up," She hissed sprinting for the nearby lift looking thing, really it was a giant hole in the side of Impel Down, but Holly was reasonably sure it was some manner of travel. Holly reached the opening at the same time Luffy did proving once again that Luffy and the people of Ace's world were far faster than her. Holly didn't mind that though, she and Luffy were on the same team after all.

Holly leaned forward, craning her neck to see the top of the lift. If she could just see it, she could- a hand grabbed the back of her shirt. She was abruptly wrenched backward and thrown to the ground by Luffy himself. It was perfectly timed too, for the platform within the lift had been cut free of its ropes, and an enormous spiked trap landed where she and Luffy had been standing only seconds before.

"Hell! Holly, be careful!" Sirius caught up quickly and shot a look up the lift, squinting as she had in an attempt to see the top.

"Damn." Luffy cursed, realizing the path was closed to them. But he, like Holly, refused to give up. "No! We'll just have to go up the way we came." Luffy turned sprinting away.

As he rushed away, Holly hesitated a moment. She hesitated because Roger said… he said Ace thought she was dead. He'd said Ace was hopeless, so much so that he may just walk to his death without fighting. Holly… she knew just how brutal it was to be willing to accept her own death because there was no other hope. Ace had pulled her from that, taught her another way. Now she didn't have to feel like that, Holly had all the hope in the world, and she knew she needed to share that with Ace.

"Holly? Come on, we have to go!" Sirius told her. He watched her as she twisted the elder wand in her hand, settling on a path, then Holly pointed the wand tip straight at her throat.

"I have to do something first." She told her godfather with her eyes on the lift and cast the spell: "Sonorus." A buzzing sensation filled her throat and settled on her vocal cords. It made the very breath she was taking in a dozen levels louder. Like thunder she inhaled the full strength of her lungs, Holly sucked air between her teeth and held it only a moment. From the side, Sirius grinned and blatantly covered his ears when he caught what her intentions were, and damn if he didn't approve.

Then Holly screamed.

_**"ACEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"**_

The prisoners and the group behind her all flinched, they staggered at the force of her yell. It echoed up and down every hallway of the six leveled prison. It shook the stones and vibrated into the ocean outside. It bounced along the walls of the lift, and six floors up, the intended recipient of her call, stopped dead.

Chained by his ankles and hands, surrounded by guards and Magellan himself. Portgas D. Ace stopped walking. Stopped even though the guards were actively prodding their weapons into his back, causing even more wounds to pile up on his body. Stopped because that- that voice was-

_**"I'M COMING ACE!"**_ the voice rattled the spines of those unprepared for it and drowned out the desperately hopeful whisper Ace let free.

"Holly…" He turned slowly, looked back at the lift, and stared. Stared unaware, his mother was at his side doing the exact same thing in abject shock. Rouge's were bugged right out of her skull, while Ace felt pure unmitigated hope fill his chest. It was impossible, utterly impossible. She had died, he'd held her corpse a world away… and yet- yet that was her voice, and everyone around him had heard it. It wasn't just his imagination playing a cruel trick. It was real.

Holly was alive.

She was alive and with Luffy- they were alive and trapped in Impel down. Determined energy surged in his blood, and Ace without warning slammed his body to the side. He twisted it so he could snatch one of the pole weapons from the nearest guards' hand. Ace flipped the weapon in his chained hands and violently lashed out. He attacked anyone who came close to him, struggled against the sheer number of them. He utilized what he'd picked up from Holly's time. Because of Holly, he knew how to fight with sea-stone draining him, had wasn't gutted by the loss of his devil-fruit as he had been when fighting Teach.

But in the end, he was physically overwhelmed.

_"No, no, Ace! Ace sweetie, stand up! They're right there, you've got this!"_ Rouge encouraged him despite Ace being unable to hear her. Encouraged him despite Magellan himself shoving Ace's face into the dirt, despite the warden himself pinning Ace to the ground. Snarling Ace bucked the man, his hands clawed at the ground as he fought on despite being pinned. He felt the stones rake across his cheek, felt them bite under his nails. He struggled and bit at Magellan's hand, unafraid of the poison that could be released. The damned Marines wanted his death public, they wouldn't kill him here, he had no fear of Magellan's poison.

"Surrender Portgas, you have already lost."

"Fuck you!" Ace spat the blood in his mouth at the man. He'd fought damned Voldemort with half his arm blown off, he could fight Magellan against the drain of the sea-stone. He could- Magellan shifted and splayed his hand across Ace's mouth. Instinctively Ace closed it and tried to hold his breath. With the palm covering both his nose and mouth, however, Ace was forced to take a breath eventually and choked on liquid.

Instantly his vision went hazy, and his struggle grew sluggish. The damned poisoned warden was pumping Ace's body full of paralytic. Forcing him to feel everything but be unable to control his body. Magellan removed the hand as Ace's body started to go limp, as the struggles faded, and they both knew it would only be a few seconds until he was completely paralyzed. So Ace did the only thing he could think of. He opened his mouth and prayed Holly would be able to hear him in return.

**"HOLLY! LUFFY!"**

Anything he might have added to that became impossible. Ace's head dropped brutally to the floor, his body went completely dead as he dropped. He couldn't move a muscle even as he felt Magellan's hand clamp around his neck. Ace's body was perfectly limp, paralyzed, as he was bodily dragged off the floor. He couldn't even choke at the pressure at his neck as Magellan shoved him into the grip of his escorting guards. Could do nothing as he was dragged from Impel down and away from his family who needed him. He could do nothing to stop it just as his mother beside him. He could do nothing but have faith in Holly and Luffy both, despite everything in him screaming that they were all doomed.

On floor six, Holly observed the lift wondering if she could transfigure a path, but it would take every bit of her magic to manage it. Not an ideal option when she needed her magic to fight against an unknown number of Marines between her and Ace.

"I heard him." Sirius suddenly said his head tilted to the side, a benefit of being a canine animegus, he heard better than the average person. Sirius pinched his lips together, concerned by the tone in Ace's voice; he didn't mention it to Holly. There was nothing she could do about it, nothing but worry anyway: "he heard you, Holly."

"Good," She said, deciding she'd just have to do it. She'd have to apparate constantly until she reached the top, it would take an immense amount of concentration but "what is that?!" Holly recoiled as think purple smog began to trickle down the lift. "Uh-oh."

"Oh no! Poison! Bad, Holly!" Sirius grabbed for her arm to pull her back, both forgetting she was magic and that he couldn't touch her.

Holly hurried to cast a bubble-head charm before she breathed any of the dark cloud in. Beside her, Sirius slapped his face with a palm, he'd forgotten that spell. "How do you know it's poison?" she asked as the smog moved toward her, would it affect her skin? Should she expand her spell?

"Magellan, he's the warden of Impel Down. He's a poison devil-fruit user… did Ace explain that?"

"yeah, he mentioned devil-fruits."

"Move please," Holly glanced to the side as a man with white and orange hair, with honest to Merlin scissors for hands, stepped up beside her. She stepped back as he cut up the floor and lifted it to cover the lift and prevent the poison from getting to them. Holly dispelled her bubble-head, realizing it was safe enough without it.

"Another devil-fruit?" she asked Sirius.

"Yeah, that's Inazuma." Sirius quietly answered.

"Sirius!" a woman floated out of the walls after he'd said it. Holly didn't need to see how her body was see-through to know precisely who she was, either. This could only be Ace's mother with those eyes and freckles.

The woman floated close and swiftly spotted Holly. When she did her face split open into Ace's smile, and Holly's heart hurt to see it, suddenly she desperately missed Ace even if she'd have him back soon. Rouge meanwhile was delighted to see Holly, over the moon frankly. The very idea that Holly was alive was not something that Rouge would get over soon. Hope had been blatantly to returned to them all, to Ace and to Rouge both… Ace, Rouge sobered, and she turned to Sirius, unaware that Holly could see her. "They're putting Ace on the ship now, we don't have long until they reach Marineford, they have the currents and the lead."

"Right Rouge-"

"You have to get Holly and Luffy out of here, and you have to find James and Lily. They don't know she's alive- I cannot believe she's alive. How did she even manage it."

"What do you mean they think she's not alive?!" Sirius sputtered even as Holly said.

"You can thank Roger for that actually ma'am."

Rouge's eyes rolled her eyes to the sky fondly: "that man! I should have… known… he…" she focused on Holly, who tentatively waved. She was two for two now, meeting the parents. The dead parents. Honestly, her luck was mad. "You can see me? Sirius… she can see us?"

"Yeah, not sure why that is, but I'm not complaining," Sirius said idly and spun toward Holly, "okay, pup. You get out of here and catch up to Ace, I'll find your parents. We'll meet in the middle."

That, Holly, could admit, was a terrifying thought. To actually meet her actual parents. Shakily Holly nodded at Sirius, trying to play off how terrifying the idea actually was, and her dog-father vanished into the nearby wall. He left Rouge behind, who floated close. The woman lifted her hands and rested them a breath away from Holly's cheeks, she peered deep into Holly's eyes just as Roger had. As if they saw beyond Holly's face right down to her soul. Rouge apparently saw what she wanted because she treated Holly to a genuinely kind smile causing her eyes to crinkle just like Ace's did when he truly smiled.

"You are good for him." Rouge told Holly, "you're so good for him, and I am so very proud to consider you my daughter… if you'll accept it?" Rouge didn't know how long this phenomenon would last, so she had to tell Holly everything before it ended. And end Rouge was confident it would

"If… err… if you want to?" Holly shuffled as her face heated nervously, she hadn't been offered such easy acceptance since Molly Weasley, but it was… nice. Nice to know Ace's parents approved of her, that they were watching out for them both.

"Good. Now go, I'll be with him." Rouge knew someone had to be because Holly and Luffy couldn't, and soon Holly would have her own parents to support her.

"Tell him I'm coming." Holly requested even if Ace couldn't hear nor see his mother. Rouge still swore to do so anyway, and she slipped away, returning to her son's side.

At the same moment, Holly turned her back on the sealed lift and jogged to join the small group gathered together. She passed the cell that Sirius pointed out as Ace's and paused. There were obvious signs that Ace had been present. Where he'd once sat, she saw blood coating the walls and floor, it stained the stones in the exact place Ace had been chained the entire time she'd known him. Holly's eyes burned slightly as she took it in as she pictured him sitting there, while in spirit, he'd been with her.

He must have been in so much pain the entire time, and he'd never given it away. It had never occurred to her that his wounds had physically been that bad. It should have, for any level of bruising to show up on Ace's spirit, the real injuries had to have been far worse. Realizing that, though, acknowledging that… well, Holly lost a lot of sympathy or pity for any guards that would try and stop her from reaching Ace moving forward.

That said, Holly pulled her eyes from the spot Ace had sat and looked to the large blue man being released from the same cell. That had to be Jimbe, the bunk-mate Ace had briefly mentioned. He hadn't said he looked like a merperson on land. Considering he had literal blue skin, shark teeth, and gills. His very existence made Holly wonder if mermaids, dragons, and other beasts also existed in Ace's world. She'd have to ask him after they met again.

Jimbe joined the building group surrounding Ace's brother, Holly followed behind him a step to see what their plan was. They had the same goal after all, and Holly was rather limited at the moment by what she could see. Holly couldn't apparate right to Ace's side if she couldn't see him after all, and these people knew the way out of the prison… that, and since Luffy was Ace's brother, Holly would have to make sure he got out alright. She knew Ace would have done the same for Ron and Hermione if he could, actually… in retrospect, he had.

Holly was loosely introduced to the most important individuals of the group as they were introduced to Luffy. While she listened, a general plan was set. Holly memorized names and faces. There was Inazuma, the man with multicolored hair and scissors for hands. Ivankov, who was scantily dressed and had a comically over-sized head with bright purple hair. Crocodile was clearly a rogue element, but 'Iva' had dirt on him to calm him down, secretly though Holly still intended to keep one eye on him until he was far away from her.

"And who are you?" Iva was the one who asked, bringing the attention of the rest of the group to Holly. Luffy alone seemed uncaring. He was a man on a mission, and everything else was unimportant.

Holly didn't actually answer either; it was Jimbe who did.

"You're her," The man commented as he looked to Holly, "the one Ace was seeing, you're the woman he loves."

Holly's face flamed because they'd never actually said it yet. They hadn't and to hear it second-hand like that-

"Ace's love?" Luffy's took interest then, his head snapped toward her, and then she was met with the most blinding smile she'd ever been witness too. It was like the sun had descended upon her, and the entire world faded away. That smile was entirely and wholly accepting, and considering this was Ace's brother, the fact that he'd offered it to her at all the more important. "Ace loves Holly?" that seemed to greatly please him, and Holly offered a sheepish little smile.

"Yeah, I'm Holly Potter… err hi,"

Iva, having decided she was welcomed into their group at Jimbe's word and Luffy's smile changed topics to their next step. Holly was mildly regretful that she didn't have the time to speak to Luffy properly, but she decided she'd take that time after Ace was safe.

She tuned into Iva's thankfully well-explained plan to Holly's gratitude. She was deeply out of her depth here, and the more information she had, the better. As she understood it, she and the group were currently on level six of Impel down, a prison that was entirely underwater- which ruined her intentions to just blast a hole in the wall and escape that way. Ace was already being transported out of prison to a place called Marineford, where he'd be executed. Their goal was to head up through the levels and follow. It was a rather effective and straightforward plan, Holly decided, as Iva ordered Crocodile to disintegrate a circular hole in the wall, leaving space for Inazuma to craft a spiral staircase out of the floor to lead them to level five of the prison. Hearing that plan, Holly elected to conserve her magic, she had a feeling she was going to need vast amounts of it and soon. Because they would be, without a doubt, fighting their way out of the prison. Fighting against brutal super-powers, that, from Ace's earlier comparison, could easily match Voldemort.

She'd be lying if she said that didn't make her nervous. But it wasn't like that nervousness would make her chicken-out either. She'd chosen this world, she'd chosen Ace, and she was not living in it without him. No matter how much she suffered to ensure he was returned to her side.

"Let's go." Luffy proclaimed, easily leading them.

It was time to go.

It was time to save Ace.

* * *

"Lily! James! Where the bloody hell are you!" Sirius screamed into the void. He'd checked the magical world, had run all over the prison even after Holly's stunt with the sonorous, but neither Potter could be found, and it was intensely annoying. Their daughter was fine and actually could see them; she could communicate with them all and actively could use their help, and the two had vanished.

"JAMES! LILY! I SWEAR-" where were they?! Not with Ace apparently because Rouge would have mentioned that. They also weren't in Gringott's where Holly died, Lily probably would have noticed when Holly's body was pulled from that world anyway. So where else would they go? Maybe- his eyes went wide, and Sirius quickly slipped through space. He vanished out of Ace's world and landed in the mess that had become of Godric's Hallow. Sirius flew through the front door and exhaled in relief when he spotted him. James was there.

James knelt in the spot he'd died, staring at the stairs that had been his final resting place with nothing in his eyes. Sirius suspected Lily was upside looking at Holly's childhood crib in the same way. Thankfully for them, neither of them needed to do that, and Sirius would ensure they knew that right then. He flew forward, placed himself directly in front of James' face, and grabbed his best friend's stupid shoulders to shake him into awareness.

"James! What the hell are you doing here? Holly needs us!"

"She doesn't," James said with a deadened voice, "we failed her, I failed her… she's dead-"

"No, nope, she's not dead." He sounded chipper because he was, their girl was fine. Sure he didn't know the circumstance, sure she might still have a fragment of Voldemort in her head, but he didn't give two shits if she did. Because he no longer cared a thing for the magical world or the war. His precious people were with him, and his beautiful pup was alive and finally fighting to live. In Circe's name, he was so proud to see her in Ace's world and see her sprinting through Impel Down's halls, not giving a shit to what she'd left behind. He was so proud to see her shrug off all the darkness she'd gained from her childhood and all the stress Dumbledore had, knowingly or not, dumped on her shoulders.

"She is." James looked away from him, "we watched it happen… Voldemort he- he killed her. Ace- oh god." James covered his face with his hands, shielding Sirius from seeing his tears. "We were too late for Ace, he was right there. He saw it happen… I couldn't face Rouge after that. The expression on his face-"

"I'm sure it was tragic," Sirius interrupted and wrenched James' hands away from his face, "but Holly's alive and Ace knows it. Pretty sure that means our plan worked, and the hallows saved her, but that doesn't matter now! What matters is Ace is heading to his execution right now, and Holly needs us-"

"I just told you!" James rounded on her, Sirius approved of the brainpower it took. Much better than black depression any day, and he ought to know. "She's dead, Sirius! She's dead- she… Holly is-" he dropped landing brutally on his knees, or would have if he wasn't a bloody ghost.

Sirius heaved a sigh: "James mate, I need you to listen to the words coming out of my mouth for once in your life." He bent down and grabbed James' face to force the man to look him in the eye. "Holly. Is. Alive." James' eyes flicked around unfocused, and Sirius shook his head a touch brutally, "Holly is alive. Holly Potter is alive. Your daughter is alive. She's dancing on Voldemort's grave out of spite because she's alive. She's currently running around Impel Down, trying to rescue her boy. She's probably going to catch up while I'm repeating this until you get it into your bloody stupid head. She's alive!"

James finally looked at him, actually looked at him. "You're not lying… are you…"

Thank Merlin Sirius was beginning to think James had really let his brain go to the other side, "James come on mate, keep up a bit-"

"Holly's alive."

"Yes and she-"

"She's alive!? What are we waiting for then!" James abruptly vanished under his hands, and Sirius scowled at the space he'd just been. Clearly, Sirius living an extra decade and a half affected his mental processing for the better. Because Sirius was thirty-six when he'd died and James was twenty-one and a moron. "One," Sirius said to the air, "you forgot your bloody wife, and two, you didn't let me tell you that Holly can hear us!"

Sirius rolled his eyes. He hated death, death made him the mature one. He turned away from the stairs and floated upward, as he'd expected Lily was staring at Holly's bad. Heaving a sigh, Sirius rolled up some imaginary sleeves and stepped forward.

One down, one to go.

"Lily Evans! Get off your angst thestral and come with me. We've got a daughter to save!"

Sirius landed in Holly's room and almost let it overwhelm him. He remembered Holly as a pup, remembered her tearing across the house on her little broom chasing the cat. He remembered her snuggling deep into his canine body because he was warm, and she hated her first winter. Her young giggling voice, full of energy and joy as she babbled nonsense. The expression on her face when Lily released a hundred colorful bubbles from the tip of her wand to circle around Holly's head. The day she squealed in delight yelling 'pafo, pafo!' when he'd come over one brutal shift as an Auror.

It almost laid him down right there, and he knew she was alive. It had nearly happened before. Sirius had practically given up in Azkaban, about to let the dementors overwhelm his mind so he could just… stop… and it in that he knew how hard it was for Holly to fight against her fate. Sirius knew the terror of it, and he knew how easy it came. Knew he could have just given in and knew Holly had been so very close to doing the same when she had nothing but Dumbledore's voice in her ear. It was why he knew… why Sirius knew that she needed someone to pull her from the edge. Why he'd gone along so quickly with Lily's suggestion to find her soulmate. Because people needed people.

He forced himself from his memories of the days in Azkaban and the last days of Lily and James' lives. He pulled himself into the present, wrenching himself away from the easily trapping thoughts. Because he was dead and it was so very easy to just stop… existing… stop… moving… but no, he refused! Sirius looked to Lily and found her hunched over Holly's crib. He expected to pull Lily from her state as he had James only to realize, their grief was very different.

James fell into inactivity, a direct opposite of his living self. He found his spot and simply… stopped. He would have remained there for the rest of eternity if Sirius hadn't found him, would have eventually faded away.

Lily did the opposite.

Her hands were on the crib bars, they gripped tight to the wood that she should not be able to touch. Her fingers sparked the wood, creating smoke that filled the air slowly. Her hair was whipping around her as if there was a fierce storm blowing, and there was one… inside a building. Toys, figures that had been left there preserved were ripped from the walls and thrown clear across the room. Sirius went unaffected by the debris, but his very being was unnerved as Lily snapped her head toward him. The motion was too fast to be natural, it would have broken her neck had she been alive, and Sirius felt his heart plunge.

"Mom told me once," Lily said, and her voice bounced against the walls, affecting the world when it shouldn't, "she said ghosts can't hurt you. She said the dead were dead… they had their time, and their time ran out. She told me when I was scared… told me after Sev- after Severus told me there were ghosts at Hogwarts." Lily's fingers clenched on the crib, and Sirius could see the beginnings of a fire there. "Grandmother was over that day, she overheard, and she came to be after mom went to sleep. She told me… that a ghost wouldn't hurt me… but a poltergeist-" Lily cut herself off and wrenched her hand from the crib.

It burst into flames a moment later, a swiftly building fire that would soon completely overwhelm the entire house. A magical fire that would envelop the preservation charms and remove the place of Lily and James' death finally from the earth. "I can touch things now, and it doesn't matter. Voldemort is dead… how can I take revenge on him if he's dead?"

Sirius cleared his throat awkwardly, "Well… Lily…" he eyed the fire as it dropped to the carpet and swiftly crept to the walls, "he's a bit beyond our grip now but-"

"I could help Ace," as Lily suddenly said, her mind was a whole conversation away, her eyes and head drifting away from him to follow the flames. Distantly Sirius found approval in the use; the house really didn't need to be around anymore. It was just a brutal reminder of a tragedy. Or he might just be more attached to fire considering Ace's abilities: "Holly loved him… I should…"

"Or- now here me out here." Sirius interrupted her, "you could just help Holly… considering she's not, you know, dead."

Lily's head snapped back to him after it wandered away and Sirius held back the wince from the sound as Lily, in a complete deadpan demanded a firm:

"What?"

Well, at least she was quicker than James to listen to him.

* * *

As it turned out, Impel down was a prison with six distinct levels. Level six, where Ace had been placed, was for the worst prisoners and looked… frankly like Azkaban according to how Sirius had described it to her. It was all stone, cells, shackles, and guardrooms. Missing from the description was the mad screaming and the dementor's presence. To make up for their non-existence was the blood-stained stones and frequent physical torture from the guards of that level.

Moving upward, Holly and her new group reached Level five, and that's where any resemblance to a regular prison ended. For, as she popped her head through the floor into level five, Holly realized they'd arrived in a frozen tundra. Before her were honest to Merlin wolves running around the area, real fully grown pine trees, and hills of snow. The roof above them looked endless, and for a place without magic, enchanted; it looked like the real sky, like flurries in the middle of the winter. The temperature also plummeted. It went from a chilled night at Hogwarts to full-on the-middle-of-a-blizzard in seconds. The entire thing made her think that was actual magic involved in the crafting of Impel down. Because how else would you explain the literal frozen tundra? She had asked Luffy because it could have been magic, but that earned her a relatively confused look from Ace's little brother, and she'd hurriedly dismissed it.

Racing upward toward level four in knee-high snow, Holly was half a step behind Luffy and doing her best to pretend it wasn't affecting her. He was a similar size to her, slim and shorter than average; this meant, as he raced through the snow, Holly was able to avoid doing the same. Instead, Holly followed the path Luffy carved, a blessing she knew because her leg was already screaming from the stairs, and it was only going to get worse. This was only level five, and they had to reach the top of level one. In an ideal world, Holly wouldn't even be using her leg until the basilisk venom had fully faded. Unfortunately, 'ideal' wasn't really in Fate's plans for either her or Ace.

"I'm surprised you aren't cold, Holly-san," Jimbe commented as they raced out of the snowy tundra and into a collection of cells. Holly offered the fish person, she wasn't sure his species yet, a wan smile. She refused to also fight against the cold. The moment Holly felt the drop in temperature, she'd tossed a warming charm on her clothes. Though to Jimbe she shrugged off an answer, Holly trusted him and Luffy well enough, but Crocodile was also with them, and he made her skin positively crawl. Holly had no intention of letting him know she had magic unless she absolutely had to.

"It's pretty cold where I'm from." Holly offered in explanation while side-eying the cells they were passing. Holly's lips pressed together like her aunts used to when she'd seen something of particular dislike, but a man with long hair had nothing on what Holly was currently disapproving. It was inhumane what the so-called 'Marines' were doing to the prisoners here. Half the prisoners she saw were freezing to death, the other half was covered in frost-bitten wounds or had missing fingers or toes. 'Hell,' Holly thought, these people weren't even the worst of the worst like Ace was considered. Though Holly was personally glad, Ace hadn't been on this level even if she believed he'd been missorted. She knew his problems with the cold, had seen the gratitude in his eyes every time she'd lit a fire in the tent, or shot his spirit with a warming spell. Holly had figured, for as much torture as he'd likely received on level six, the brutal cold of this level might have been worse.

"The treatment of the prisoners here," Holly spoke up, glancing at Jimbe, "is it common? Do people ever… protest?"

Crocodile barked a laugh at her question, a mocking and cruel sound: "This, little girl, is considered kinder than other levels." he shot her a side-long look, "the cold makes you numb, and you'll simply drift away in your sleep one night. A fun way to go, don't you think?"

Holly bit her lip as her fingers flexed helplessly on her wand. A step behind her, Jimbe cleared his throat and answered. "No, no one protests… many would, unfortunately, approve, in fact."

"Suppose that means there's no such thing as rehabilitation here either." She muttered as they rounded another corner, Holly was beginning to think Muggle's were the out-liners when it came to humanity for crime breakers. Azkaban... the dementors spoke enough for Azkaban, and now there was Impel down.

"You remind me of a revolutionary," Jimbe commented, having heard her under the breath comment.

"What's that?" Holly asked as the cells cleared away to reveal white painted walls and a set of heavy doors. It was likely their path to level four... and another set of stairs, fun.

"Should we survive this, I will explain," Jimbe told her, "or you may ask Ivankov, they are a member of the organization."

"I'll do that." Because she definitely intended to survive; though, while she was on the thought, "hey Jimbe, what's the general crime of the people here?"

Crocodile grunted her an answer to that question, he spoke straight over Jimbe: "Level five… anything between casual piracy to mass murder. The Marines like to put us in category's more attuned to strength than actual crime. They're just bullshitting. It's all random." Jimbe didn't disagree with that statement either, so Holly took it as an honest one. Still, it made her wonder, and it made her pause.

Stopping at the bottom of the steps, Holly glanced back while Luffy tossed open the stairs toward level four. She peered at the cells in smaller sizes and clenched her fists. A part of her wanted to just release the people here, but as she looked to those closest to her, she knew she couldn't. It was one thing to protest their treatment; it was another to release potential mass murderers into the world.

As Crocodile had said, crime didn't matter, and there was no way to tell the difference between prisoners. Nor did Holly had the time to slowly check the memory of everyone she came across before releasing the less 'guilty' ones.

Though she could do… something. Something to ease her consciousness, something to help, if only a little bit.

Holly dropped to a knee as the other three vanished up the circular stairs. She took a moment to plant the tip of the elder wand- not hers, hers was lost- into the frozen ground. There was a spell that was used in most wards to prevent ice from building onto broom handles or stone flooring. Holly had picked it up after the large icing problem that plagued her during her third year quidditch season. Months Holly had struggled to keep her grip on her broom during the chaotic dives she was known for. After Wood taught it to her, the spell had become her most used, for both her broom and her glasses.

Chanting quietly, Holly shoved magic into the floor. She felt her core expand, and her magic stretch out to coat the ground of level five. Holly wasn't releasing the prisoners, but a little humanity went a long way, she thought.

Where Holly stood, the ice began to melt even though the chill remained in the air. Soon, the entire floor, everything her magic had touched, would be clear of ice. And because it was magic, the Marines couldn't do a damned thing to stop it or revert it, not unless they wanted to build a new prison.

Holly gave a light cackle feeling quite pleased with herself. Then, she turned and started up the stairs. Holly apparated several times to provide herself with a bit of a short-cut until she caught up with Luffy, Jimbe, and Crocodile. She arrived just in time to catch the tail end of their conversation, and at the same moment, she spotted Crocodile's legs, he was ruddy flying.

"You! Are! Cheating." Holly blurted at the man. She felt a rush of offense at his devil-fruit ability, though she couldn't explain why. Perhaps it was just because she didn't like him, or it was because of the pain in her leg. Holly didn't bother analyzing it regardless. She was offended, plain, and simple.

Crocodile was literally floating up the stairs, his entire lower half was made of sand. The man smirked at her tauntingly, and she huffed, glancing away.

Admittedly Holly should probably just focus on keeping up instead of him. Her stamina was definitely not at the same level as these three, she was already huffing and puffing from the run while they scarcely seemed to notice it. Which was totally unfair. Jimbe and Crocodile had been prisoners and should have been closer to her level considering their inactivity. Luffy meanwhile had already come down all these stairs and was already going back up them, he should be tired too. Yet none of the three were. It was just her.

"The execution will be at three sharp," Jimbe spoke up, and they all glanced at him.

Holly reached over with her free hand and tapped her wrist. She had died at night and had been dead for an unknown amount of time. Holly had no idea what time it actually was. So casting a subtle tempus, she found out. It was ten in the morning, a full twelve hours at least since she'd died,, and a total five hours until Ace ran out of time. Holly grimaced at the thought while Jimbe explained what was likely going to happen after they escaped Impel down.

Ace would reach Marineford first and be placed upon the execution platform. Following that, Whitebeard would arrive to wage war against the Marine's to get Ace back. If Whitebeard succeeded, Ace would be saved. If Whitebeard failed, Ace would die. The latter was an unacceptable end.

"They won't execute him before three, that's what matters," Luffy said as he took the stairs four at a time, "that gives us time to save him."

"Agreed," Holly grunted as they came up to an enormous door. She lifted her hand to unlock it when Crocodile surged past, disintegrating the wood and metal with a touch. She blinked a bit in surprise as he blatantly explained to them that he was made of sand and could pull water straight out of things. Oddly helpful exposition for her considering she was somewhat lost. Holly still made a note to never let that guy touch her and to soak him with an aguamenti spell if he ever made a move to attack her. She did not feel like disintegrating, thanks.

They burst out of the door to find an army of guards waiting for them. Holly, probably unwisely, paid the guards less attention that she did her surroundings.

Holly felt herself frowninng deeper. It was no wonder Ace didn't question her magic overly much considering this damned prison. A level below them had been as cold as the top of a mountain, and a set of stairs later, they were in the deepest pits of hell.

She cringed at the drastic rise in temperature. The cold hadn't been as harmful to her personally because she was used to being left out in it. As a kid, Holly had angered her aunt on multiple occasions. This resulted in Holly being kicked outside, barefoot, in the snow waiting for her aunt's temper to cool.

In retrospect, it had likely been her parents that actually got the door open that one night her aunt forgot about her. They'd saved her that night. Holly knew now, that had she fallen asleep in the snow, she might not have woken again.

Either way, Holly was used to the cold but preferred being warm. A good thing Ace was her soulmate ironically considering his devil fruit. But this heat was a touch too hot. It was frying pan hot, cook an egg on the floor hot, burn your skin against the walls hot, and she had a- had a bloody warming charm on clothes from the first level. Holly hurriedly swapped the warming charm for a cooling one and was met with immediate relief.

"What is with this place, and the drastic temperature changes?" Holly wondered aloud.

Jimbe gave her a slight side-eye questioning why she didn't know, but he didn't voice the question. Not as a few dozen guards lined up before them ready to attack. Holly stared at one of the men at the back, speaking into a… something, she couldn't make it out. It was likely a walkie-talkie or something to communicate to whoever was monitoring their progress. She wished she could get a hold of it, to see what she had to look out for when it came to technology.

"This is level four, Shichibukai Jimbe escaped from level six, intruder Monkey D. Luffy, former shichubukai Crocodile, and unknown female intruder have arrived. Requesting backup!"

Holly perked as she caught that announcement, she really was an unknown, but that worked just fine for her. She had been notorious in her birth world, so she'd stay an unknown for as long as she could in this one… for however long that lasted.

Just as the thought occurred to her, Jimbe, Luffy, and Crocodile suddenly darted forward, throwing themselves into battle. Holly was left staring as she grasped the truth; she was drastically out of her element. Bullets rained down and went straight through Crocodile's sand body. Luffy fought and moved so quickly it looked like he had a hundred limbs at once. While Jimbe fought with literal shock waves, causing them with just his fists.

Holly exhaled a nervous laugh feeling for a terrifying moment that she was only going to be a hindrance to the mission. Suddenly Ace's explanations of strength levels made far more sense. Why Ace was so confident he could fight Voldemort and kill the man when so many others couldn't. Because to Ace and the people of this world, Voldemort was just one powerful man, one among hundreds. Holly swiftly reevaluated her own physical strength and drastically altered her average.

Then she straightened her spine as a bullet struck Luffy and stretched his skin backward until it rebounded. Her eyes bugged out slightly; she hadn't realized Luffy also had a devil fruit.

She knew it now, physically she was much much weaker than these people. Her stamina was lower. Her speed was minimal.. but Holly wasn't useless. She gripped her wand and reminded herself that she could do a lot of things Luffy, Jimbe, and Crocodile couldn't. Like apparate, brew potions, and draw out runes. She could make herself invisible and soundless. Could fly with aid, and she could revive from the bloody dead. Roger called her Ace's soulmate. That meant she was his other half, and if Ace's strength was physical, she'd fight another way and save him all the same.

But how?

"Holly-girl!"

She turned, spun on the spot as Ivankov came rushing up the stairs. The man stopped a breath away from her and suddenly shoved something into her hands. Holly glanced down- and gaped. It was a set of keys, a whole chain of them just dangling there. "Wha-?" she started to ask.

"Hurry Holly-girl, ve need all the help ve can get!"

He… he wanted her to unlock the cells. But she'd just said- but no, it didn't matter now did it. On the level below, she had decided to leave the cells be, had decided not to risk the people of this world. To release countless pirates and civilians suffer the consequences. But in the end… it didn't matter. How nasty could these people be? To be forced to live in this place, tortured, abandoned, forgotten by the world and… and have the guards be praised for it? She didn't accept that, and even if she did, her priorities were set.

Ace came first.

She was done being a savior.

"I don't need them." Holly pushed the keys back into Ivankov's hand then sprinted toward the nearest collection of cages. Straightening up, Holly gripped the elder wand and, without much warning, stabbed the tip forward and twisted. Like unlocking a door, like using a key instead of magic. "Alohamora!" Cell doors flew open, dozens of shackles hit the ground as she raced up and down Level five. As she darted past the guards without engaging, as she blatantly avoided them because she elected not to be a physical fighter.

One path led her to already open cages and a set of keys being passed around. She wasn't sure where they came from, and had no idea who to ask to get that information. Instead, she changed up her focus and shot a look upward. After a few seconds, she spotted a platform far higher than the average height of the floor. Taking it in Holly apparated on the spot and landed on it. Then she leaned over the edge and took in the level.

Holly saw a few people flickering at a distance, hovering by the ground looking pained or upset, but she passed her gaze over them trying to find- there he was! Luffy was brutally taking down guards with a… ballerina? At his side. He was thankfully easy to spot, considering the straw-hat on his head was unique. Likewise, Ivankov was easy enough to catch considering the hair, and Jimbe with the blueness of his body. It was becoming more challenging to keep track of them, as an army of prisoners built from the emptied cages. Holly, watching the chaos, decided the next time she was next to Luffy, she'd put a tracking spell on him. But first… where were the stairs for the next level-

"Holly! You're alive!"

"Gah!" she flailed, striking out at the see-through figure that spawned beside her. Her hand went straight through his head before she realized whom she'd just tried to slap. Then once she did, she felt instant brutal guilt. He was a tall man wearing round glasses with a hair cut she'd carried for a long time as a kid. She froze and looked at the moving form of a picture she'd stared at every night after she'd received it first year. This was James, her dad. Her dad was here, and her mind shut down even if Sirius had warned her.

"Wow, glad you can't actually hit me, pup?" James' brows pinched like hers did, "but you shouldn't have even known to…" his eyes went to the ring at her finger, "you're wearing the stone… does that mean… Holly, can you see me?"

"Y-yes?" she choked out. What was it with people and sneaking up to yell her name lately?! Though… this one wasn't inherently something she disapproved of.

"Oh, Merlin." James' building smile was remarkably like Luffy's as it grew across his face. He whooped in utter joy and bounced on the spot, aware he couldn't touch her, but he was quite unable to contain his happiness. "Pup! My pup can see me! Oh, gods Holly, everything I've wanted to tell you, and I finally can." He swiped at his eyes and moved his hands to hover over her own, it was almost like he was holding them. Then, he spoke fully confident, voice dripping in sincerity like he'd practiced it a hundred times in the mirror. "You Holly deserve the world, you're amazing pup. So resilient and brave, you've made me the proudest father that ever existed. Everything you went through and survived - and Merlin, I can't apologize enough for the fact that you had to suffer that - but I'm so proud of you that you did. That you came out of it all the stronger and more caring than I ever imagined someone could be. You did so good."

This was it Holly realized. This was the moment she'd craved since she had been old enough to understand it. This was her being accepted and loved by her father, the real man Holly had longed for every cruel night and every harsh day. This was her being told she mattered and was accepted without hesitation. Being told so by the one who brought her into life, by the one who died to protect her. This was actually happening.

Holly felt hot tears run down her face as James spoke, as he freely offered every kind word she'd wished with all her heart to hear. James was proud of her, he thought she'd done well. It was almost too much, almost. She swiped helplessly at her eyes, doing nothing helpful against the ocean of tears finally escaping her heart.

"You are a beautiful soul Holly, a beautiful soul that never deserved any of what that shrew did. In another life-" he cut off voice thick, swallowing against the sudden frog in his throat. What he wanted to say, what he wished had happened would never be, and James had to accept that. Had to push onward despite it. "-It doesn't matter. Just know that I love you Holly, beyond this afterlife, beyond what comes next, beyond any other soul to exist, I love you. Never ever doubt that, alright? Even if you never see me again after this, know that I love you."

"O-okay," she sobbed the word out. Holly swiped at the helpless tears pouring down her face and nodded through them. She sobbed as James gave her an utterly fond look.

Then, when she calmed down slightly, he said. "Now… its time you started to rebel against society like any proper teenager should, I'm prepared for it. I got a speech and everything prepared for you and Ace! Come on, we've got your soulmate to save, and I have to tell your mother." He gasped in horror, "oh bugger, your mother. Lily is going to revive me just to kill me for not telling her you're fine!"

Holly released a desperate giggle and turned back to the battle. James stayed to the side of her as she finally spotted the stairs to the next level; a thin vulnerable bridge led to them, and she sharply nodded. Holly would take the bridge and remove the guards blocking it. "Ready?" she glanced at her father, who seemed entirely too delighted by the chaos in the prison. Then again considering what she knew about him, and the fact that they'd been forced inactive in this place for ages... well, she could understand.

"Oh, pup, I died ready." Holly didn't know he was more delighted by the fact that she'd asked him, that she could ask him. James thanked his ancestors desperately for that, and for the ring that made it possible.

She rolled her eyes, and his grin widened. Holly then stood and turned on the spot, she apparated straight behind the gathered guards at the stairs. Their only warning was the crack of sound drowned out by the overall volume of the fighting. They weren't expecting it when Holly spawned behind them and swung the elder wand in a series of swift arcs causing the air to fill with bright red magic. From her sparring with Ace, Holly knew not to bother with a single complicated and magically draining spell. A flurry of simple ones worked far better. The people in this world could dodge magic, and one hex would just be wasted on a faster opponent. A flurry of stupefies though? Holly was guaranteed to at least brush skin, and that was all that was needed to stun someone.

The guards dropped aware but paralyzed to the floor, leaving only one oddly dressed man standing. He spun toward her, shocked at what she'd done without a sound or warning. Hannyabal was the vice-warden of the prison and had a theory about this particular woman. Now, his opinion had just been proven correct. Somehow the unknown woman attempting to save Ace had a teleporting devil fruit. She had to be the reason Monkey D. Luffy had gotten into the prison and was likely limited to what she could see, which would explain why she hadn't come earlier to rescue Portgas.

He'd spotted her on the records of the den-den Mushi's for level six. He watched her appear out of thin air and immediately make her way toward Portgas' cell. He'd gone over the recordings, every one of them before she'd first been spotted, and she was nowhere to be found… at least not within their sight. The only way that was possible had to be a devil fruit. Now, she'd teleported directly behind him without a sound and taken out his men at the same time.

She was a teleporter, he was sure of it.

Hannyabal swiftly offered a report on his mini-mushi warning the guards that to imprison her, they'd first need to catch her with sea-stone. Then he turned his attention to her. This was like sparring with Kizaru, she'd be as fast as him or quicker. He had to prepare for an attack from behind, the sides, or even above him if he wanted to take her down.

Holly eyed the oddly dressed man as James explained: "That's Hannyabal, the vice-warden. Be careful fighting him Holly, he won't be as weak as the rest." Was that odd clothing considered normal? Then again… Ivankov, maybe she was the odd one for her jeans and robe.

"Got it," Holly said to her father and stepped forward to meet Hannyabal even though she could turn her back and head right up the stairs if she wanted. Holly didn't, she didn't because she was part of a team now, and if she was getting out of Impel Down, so was Luffy at the very least. "Bring it ugly!" she taunted and brandished her wand at him. He pulled a halberd from somewhere? As well as a set of thick blue stone shackles. Then he swung the weapon over his head in an elegant move.

At his feet, the aware but stunned guards watched their vice-warden having faith he would defeat the strange girl who had taken them out from behind. James, at the same time, knew she'd handle him just fine. She had something to lose here, and the man was merely defending a jail.

Then, the vice-warden began to twist his weapon in the air quicker than James thought possible. The metal burst into flame as the halberd sped up faster and faster before he charged toward Holly. James and Holly realized it at the same moment, Hannyabal was distracted. He was acting as if she were going to pop up right behind him, he was splitting his attention, and it gave Holly the instant advantage.

Twisting the elder wand, Holly hurled two shields up between them, one halfway between them and a second hovering around her skin. Then she hurriedly cast a powerful aguamenti and soaked the man entirely to put the flames out. Hannyabal swore suddenly realizing he was wrong, and her weakness was actually the seemingly pointless stick- but it was too late. Holly sent a literal wave of water at him, and it shocked him enough to stall, just as his weapon smacked against her shield.

Her shield held because the man hadn't used haki like Ace usually did, and the weapon brutally rebounded. Holly, in that second, pressed her advantage. She leaped over his men and sent a swarm of stunners at the vice-warden. She gave him no chance, and he dodged back eyes on her wand, on the weapon, on the tech that had to be within it. He ducked the arcing lights, darted toward her with a grace and skill Holly hadn't honestly believed he was capable of. She heard James call a warning as she cast faster and faster-

His hand snagged her wrist, the halberd came up toward her side to slice Holly straight through- and one of her spells glanced across his cheek. Hannyabal froze in place, aware he couldn't move, aware of what was happening, but he was frozen.

One slight brush of a spell was enough, one little touch, and she'd won. A benefit of magic.

And the vice-warden dropped, conscious but stunned.

Holly felt relief even as she rubbed at her wrist. The strength he'd used to grab her had easily bruised her skin. Holly exhaled and readjusted her internal power scale. She'd assumed herself to be generally weak compared to Jimbe, Luffy, Crocodile, and Ace, but perhaps she was more along with their level… with low stamina. She'd have to ask Ace to help her with that since she was staying in his world.

"Way to go Holly!" James praised as she sent a spell at the guards and Hannyabal to push them out of the way. She didn't want them to be crushed by the general public running through the area. The idea didn't settle well with her consciousness, no matter how poorly these people treated the prisoners. That done she took a defensive position to wait for Luffy and spotted-

"Are those animals?" Giant creatures were ripping through the prisoners in the distance. They walked upright and held actual weapons in their paws and claws. Holly couldn't help but stare at them as they were brutally defeated by Jimbe, Crocodile, and Luffy shortly after their appearance.

"Devil fruit users." James corrected, "they're humans that can change into animals, stronger than an animagus though they can't disguise themselves like an animagus can. They can't change their size, so it's blatantly clear what they are." He was proud of that, to know all his practice to become an animagus wasn't made useless because some moron ate a disgusting fruit.

"I see," Holly cast her eyes out, looking for any sign of Luffy and noted his hat bobbing in the crowd of prisoners, he was heading straight for her looking positively thunderous. He'd clearly run into someone or something he hadn't liked. Also, was that a female Ivankov running beside him? How had the purple-haired man/woman changed gender when she wasn't looking.

Luffy, when he spotted her seemingly alone by the stairs to wait, called out with a wave. "Holly!" She grinned at him, then turned and started up the stairs alone, she'd need the extra time to compensate for her leg she reasoned. Sure enough, a pleased Luffy, a confused Jimbe and Crocodile, caught up within minutes. They were all aware they'd left her behind at the doors to level six and had assumed she couldn't fight. Yet somehow, Holly had gotten ahead of them and defeated the vice-warden, as well as the other guards protecting the path to level four.

There was more to this girl than they first assumed they realized each trying to figure it out. Crocodile, like those before him thought she carried a devil-fruit and was trying to figure out which one. Jimbe was keeping his mind open but assumed the same. Luffy, he was more focused on the limp in her step and the growing bruise around her wrist. He believed she could handle herself, but she was also Ace's love, so he'd watch out for her if he was nearby.

"Alright, Luffy?" she panted slightly as James floated along with her.

"I'm going to check your path," James called and sped through the walls upward.

"I'm hungry." Was Luffy's complaint, which caused her to grin, maybe if she got a calm moment she could summon something to- a furious yell cut off her thought and echoed from behind them.

"STRAW HAT!" Holly didn't slow, didn't falter, but she did glance back. Back passed Luffy and the army at their heels as her skin crawled at the fury in that voice.

"Who'd you piss off?" she asked assuming 'straw hat' referred to Luffy's.

"I think this is a case of mistaken identity Holly-san," Jimbe corrected, moving ahead of her steadily he still wasn't even winded, "that was Magellan likely discovering the state of Hannyabal, which I believe you are responsible for?"

"Oh," her face heated, "if it makes him less angry, the guy will be fine?" Actually would he? Most of the time, a witch or wizard had to remove a stun, she'd assumed the magic would eventually run out… but would it? Oh dear.

"I don't think it does," Jimbe laughed as screams echoed below them. It caused Luffy's face to tighten, and Jimbe to speed up slightly. Holly, at that, started to fall behind. She shot another look back, and it nearly caused her to stop when she caught sight of a tide of purple envelop the back of their group. The people it touched or even glanced, dropped screaming in agony, and she felt a rush of fear enter her chest.

"Don't stop," Jimbe ordered, falling back a touch so he could push her slightly from behind, "anyone caught it that is lost."

"What… is it?"

"Poison," Luffy answered with gritted teeth.

Holly shot another look back as they approached the top of the stairs and saw a man who was so coated in the poison that she swore she could see through him just like she could her father. If it were poison that coated him, then that man was as good as dead just like she'd be if Magellan caught up. She turned her attention forward again. James was already waiting there, yelling the level was clear, but it wouldn't be, not if Magellan caught up throwing poison around like water from a sprinkler. But Holly could do something about that. She stopped at the top and searched her pockets.

Luffy rushed passed her: "don't stop Holly!" he yelled as he raced on. She didn't have a pen, she couldn't draw runes without something to draw with. She needed a-

"I need a pen!" she called into the crowd, "something to write with!"

"Here!" a woman stopped, pausing to recover her breath and handed over over a… tube of lipstick. Better than nothing Holly decided on the spot and accepted it with a quick 'thanks' before darting for the doorway leading back to Level five. She pulled off the top in a hurry before starting her work. She didn't have long before Magellan caught up, and she needed at least the basic runes placed by then.

"Vhat are you doing, Holly-girl?" Ivankov, the female version, asked her. She had been in the middle of the back and had stopped with Holly to guard their retreat no doubt. To give them, like Holly intended, some desperately needed space between the chief warden and them.

"Runes," Holly said, her mind on her past. On sitting beside Hermione in their tent long before Ace came into the picture. With Hermione holding a thick journal in her open palm leading Holly and Ron both through the runes that would keep them safe. Carving symbols for protection in the air, precisely the same as the lightning bolt on Holly's forward. Runes for safety, for invisibility, for being overlooked, for shielding. How they mixed together as Hermione wrote crafted her first true rune ward, something so beyond the norm that Ron had been left gaping. Because to craft something new like Hermione had usually required a Mastery and yet here was Hermione not even graduated Hogwarts doing precisely that.

She still remembered how to do it after she sent Hermione away to Ron, so they could be happy and wouldn't have to suffer the Horcruxes presence any longer. She remembered holding Hermione's journal as she tried to copy her best friend's work for the first time… and remembered Ace following her a month later after she'd gotten used to it. As that first night, she kept him in her sights because she hadn't trusted him in the least.

Look how much her life had changed since then. Holly didn't even recognize it as hers anymore.

Runes, typically drawn in circular form, were drawn into the stone doorway with a lipstick. Holly traced over them with her wand, briefly thinking on everything Hermione had drawn in that book. Thinking on how far with runes Holly had gotten as a result of studying that journal. She hoped Hermione would be recognized for that someday.

"It's supposed to be a sphere," Holly muttered for both her and Ivankov's benefit, "it works much better as a sphere, but… this will do well enough if he doesn't realize he can go around it." It would stop Magellan until the man realized that it only affected the doorway. "It'll keep them from moving past this point."

Ivankov stared at her from the back as she finished up, looked at this odd little girl attached to Portgas D. Ace and Monkey D. Luffy. What she could do… that was not a devil fruit, but Ivankov had no clue what it could be instead. Something new to the world, perhaps… something everyone would need in the future. "Zen hurry, Holly-girl!"

"Yeah, got that!"

James stood nearby, invisible to all but Holly as his little girl broke magical rules with ease. As she used techniques from her past and applied them so quickly to the present. Holly didn't even realize how amazing it was; that she'd altered the design of a spherical ward to fit a doorway on the fly like that. Proud didn't even begin to describe what he felt watching her rush through runes without mistake or error. As she poured magic into the lines and across the doorway, crafting a live shield to defend her group.

She didn't even realize how amazing she was. James hoped dearly that she'd figure that out.

"Done!" she jumped to her feet, "let's go!"

Iva shook her head and waved Holly on: "go on without me Holly-girl, go save your boy." She hesitated, but Ivankov seemed confident, and she had her priorities.

Holly knew well that she didn't know Ivankov enough to argue her resolve. "You better catch up." Was all she could offer before turning on her heel to apparate right to the next doorway. She fell a fierce drain on her magic as she landed beside a patiently waiting Inazuma. Never before had she actually felt tired after apparating, that was… a bad sign. It was possible her core was nearing empty and she'd soon be facing magical exhaustion or the basilisk venom was doing something beyond healing because of how she was pushing herself.

"Hurry, my dear," Inazuma spoke up as she stared at the stairs before her. She'd never catch up with her leg, Holly would have to apparate to make up time and return to the group.

"What are you going to do?" she asked despite this awareness.

"Go," he didn't answer.

Holly went.

She turned on her heel again and vanished with a crack. She landed on the stairs and apparated again, and again. Moving the farthest distance she could in her line of sight each time until she reached the top and heard a crash behind her. Inazuma had cut the stairs to pieces to prevent anyone from following them. Had prevented even himself and Ivankov from doing the same. They had a plan Holly told herself as she rushed into level two, apparently she'd skipped straight over level three entirely… not that she was complaining.

The tail end of the group was ahead of her, all of them brutally cutting a path through the guards. Fighting tooth and nail to escape by any means. But by then, Holly was truly beginning to flag. She'd used far too much magic, and she didn't have nearly enough stamina for the sheer amount of sprinting she was doing. And as she landed at level two, Holly found the sides of her vision graying out. She was exhausted. Her leg was still burning, and it had only gotten worse. On top of all that, Holly was at the very back of the pack while Luffy remained at the front and Ace far beyond that.

She staggered, gasping for air. Holly landed on her knees and shot a look at her legs, she couldn't see past the jeans, but she knew it wouldn't look good.

"Holly!" Sirius appeared at her side. "There you are, we've been looking everywhere for you!"

Holly groaned, pushing herself back to her feet before the distance between her and the pack grew any more significant. "Can't… really… talk…" she shoved her body forward, thinking of Ace, of the last hug he'd given her, of the blood in his cell, at how she'd felt thinking death was coming and how he might be feeling now. She moved. No one was killing him as long as she drew breath Merlin damn it!

"You can do this sweet-heart, just get to the ship, and you can rest awhile." A hand nudged her back, pushing her forward. Holly didn't think about it, not like James and Sirius did with a proper view of who had done it. They both gaped as Lily's expression turned positively vicious, and her hair floated about her, tangling together as if it lived. She could touch her daughter, she could actually affect the world while remaining unaffected by it herself.

Lily nodded to James and Sirius, told them with a single look to push Holly forward. But she, she stopped and turned around to face the warden who would soon be coming to meet them. That man was going to get a piece of Lily Potter, and she couldn't wait.

Holly nodded as James and Sirius filed in beside her. Backed her as she ran, and ran, and ran. Her muscles were burning, her leg was screaming, her lungs were scarcely taking in air. But she kept on going, she kept going.

"Luffy is just up ahead Holly, you can do this," Sirius promised. Just a little farther, just a little more, just one more enemy, one more rescue and- she- could- rest-

Holly's hair swung into her face, strands plastered to her skin, and she cast aside her outer robes because it was too hot and heavy to keep them on. She abandoned that piece of herself effortlessly even while being aware she'd never wear a robe from her birth world again. Holly braced herself when guards surrounded her and forced her to throw another massive swarm of spells at them. She kept going, ducking under men's legs, kicking one in the nuts because he'd attacked just after she'd finished casting another swarm of stupefy. She swiped a hand at her forehead as her family encouraged her to keep going.

A guard bodily placed himself between her and her goal, and Holly darted around him, she was passed him when- "Ah!" Holly shrieked as his gloved hand sank into her hair and caught in her curls. She heard James and Sirius cry her name as she was brutally wrenched backward and thrown into the ground. She instantly tried to twist her body to regain her feet, but she only served to land hard on her elbow, causing a rush of pain through her body. It hurt, and Holly mistakenly, foolishly, allowed herself to feel it at that moment. The guard landed on her a moment later.

"Do not resist pirate scum!"

She'd taken down the vice-warden herself, and it was a nameless random guard that suddenly had her pinned. He pressed her to the floor and fished for a set of heavy looking stone shackles. Holly twisted and bucked, fought like Ace had advised her to after being pinned, but the guard seemed uncaring as if her attempts were nothing worth considering. It wasn't surprising either; in comparison to her petite body, he was huge, and her strength came from magic. She didn't have the physical strength to fight him.

So why was she trying to do so?

Holly stopped fighting as the guard grabbed her wrist and moved to lock the shackle onto her wrist. The moment he had it, the moment he thought she wasn't going to fight, Holly wrenched her arm to the side and pointed her finger at his chest, at any skin she could really. Then Holly cried out, loud and clear, "Sectumsempra!"

An arc of magic crossed his body, and he dropped. He collapsed back as blood welled up in a snake-like pattern. Holly instantly rolled free. Panting, Holly kicked the guard away and staggered back to her feet. Her elbow was still stinging, and she had a nasty bruise on her chin from when she fell, but she was okay. Holly was okay. She staggered away from the masked guard, left him bleeding out on the ground- she had fallen behind again- she had to catch up- Ace was-

She left a man bleeding out from a wound no one was physically capable of repairing, and it wouldn't occur to her until much later. But, in the heat of the moment, she didn't care, and Ace, he wasn't around to fix that mistake as he had before.

"Holly? Are you alright pup?" James see-through hands fluttered around her as she pushed on.

"Where is she?" Sirius asked at the same time, head flapping around as if trying to spot someone, the question was directed to James. Holly listened with half an ear as she dove under some bizarre lion looking creature and crawled away as it attacked a prisoner who'd been close to her.

"He just figured out he could go around the ward, he's attempting to fight her now." James looked a little too pleased by his comment even as he shot Holly a concerned look. She was closing the gap to the pack, but she couldn't handle many more blows like that.

"Did they… last…?" Holly asked, assuming Sirius was referring to the female Ivankov. She could see it, Luffy's straw-hat bobbing along ahead of her. It had somehow become Holly's goal, her focus when she couldn't keep track of her own path. As long as she kept this pace, she'd catch up to it. Merlin, they were so close… she needed a break. But she wouldn't get one, she wouldn't because they still had to catch up to Ace and fight a war after that. Holly whimpered at the thought and still didn't stop.

"It helped, you earned five minutes from that, and that matters pup," James told her firmly, "it would have lasted even longer if you'd managed a full circle… you may have to try that in the future, might come in handy." Luffy had stopped to fight a collection of guard. Somehow she'd caught up, and Holly raced right passed him to find a new focus to follow.

Her marauder blood perked up as she slipped past Luffy, it encouraged her to toss a taunting remark over her shoulder as she went. "Don't stop Luffy, pretty sure you told me that!" Luffy gave a delighted laugh, a second-wind finding them both as he swiftly caught up to her. Luffy, more observant than anyone gave him credit for, had already noticed that Holly was almost ready to drop, and he matched her pace.

When another wave of guards appeared between them. Before Holly could so much as grab her wand, Luffy had thrown himself forward instinctively covering Holly.

"Seriously," Holly panted as they dropped to the floor, knocked out cold, "do they not have enough guards in this place?"

Luffy laughed as they finally reached the top of the stairs to see the doors to freedom. A few prisoners were already cheering and pushing the doors open to reveal the ocean and the sun at last. Holly exhaled seeing it, they'd made it!

"It's been… a long time since I saw the sky, let alone the sun." She admitted half to herself and half to the people around her. And it had been. It had been night when they'd headed into Gringott's and Holly didn't count her time in the after-life as seeing the real sky. There was too much missing from the in-between. Subtle things like the wind on her skin that brushed at her hair even now.

"Can you see the ships?" James asked with a hand at his brow, "there should be some here."

"The Marines moved them back, smart of them, if annoying." Sirius agreed, floating upward to get a better view.

"Why?" Holly asked. Her question was multi-sided, why did they need a ship? Why was moving it back smart? Why had everyone stopped?

"This world is mostly ocean, and we're settled between the calm-belt." James explained gently, "The Calm-belt is an ocean infested with monsters that make dragons look tame. You need a ship to get anywhere, especially out of here."

"So, we get one?" Sirius dropped back down beside them, "there's some in the distance, we just have to steal one. You have a broom, Holly?"

"Err no, Roger didn't let me pack, so yeah, no." A prisoner nearby, Luffy's Ballerina, shot her a look noting she was seemingly talking to herself. Holly meanwhile leaned forward to spy the ships herself. She could see their outline, but she'd need a much better view if she wanted to apparate straight to them. What about upward? Holly twisted her body to look up. Impel down had levels above them for the guards; she could apparate there and hopefully get a better look at the ship's deck.

"The gates need to be opened," Jimbe said, stopping at her side to catch his breath, Holly felt slightly relieved that he needed to. She also felt relieved that they all seemed to have made it to the top, even bloody Crocodile and the ballerina guy.

At his comment, Holly looked toward the gates themselves, ridiculous things that they were. They were the size of skyscrapers in the distance. Holly spared no thought for why they couldn't just sail around the bloody things. She was tired enough and trusted Jimbe enough to believe he knew what he was talking about.

"How?" that was the still nameless ballerina.

"There's a lever that needs to be pulled at the right time inside the prison."

Holly shook her head, that would force someone to stay behind. No, there was another way. "I can do it without the lever." She swore mind whirling with the edges of a plan while recalling a fairy-tale Petunia had read to Dudley so many years ago.

"You can?" Jimbe asked for details without asking for them, and Holly pointed out to the distant ships.

"If you can get a ship, I should be able to make it fly right over or around the gates." She'd have to draw plenty of runes on the hull or sail, and she might pass out from the effort. But if they needed to be passed the gates to get to Ace, then past the gates they'd get.

"Consider it done," Jimbe promised, a plan to get a ship already in his head. He looked to the ballerina, "You, Bon Clay, guard her until she's ready."

"I need on the ship, I have to draw… stuff, on the ship to do it." She told Jimbe before he excluded her from it.

Jimbe altered his plan on a galleon. "Then both of you with me." He led them forward as Crocodile cut the large wooden doors from the walls of Impel down. It landed in the water, and he, with a few others she didn't have names for, hopped onto the door itself. Holly didn't hesitate to follow, she bound forward onto the wood. Her first time ever on something that could be considered a ship, even if it was just a door. As she landed, people at the back of their group started to panic as an all-mighty screech echoed through Impel Down's halls. It was an inhuman thing that made her skin crawl, while the people around her covered their ears just from the slightest hint of it.

Luffy at once put his back to them. Trusted them to get the ship while he defended their flank. At the same time, Sirius and James exchanged a look and also split. Sirius flew for Luffy to watch over him while James headed for Holly. Jimbe didn't waste a moment once everyone was settled and certainly didn't for the invisible dead man to catch up. He dropped into the ocean, which interestingly enough every member of her small team shied away from, and started to shove their little door-boat forward through the water.

"Are you sure you can handle that sort of magic, Holly?" James asked her as Jimbe, and the door-boat dodged around canon fire. Water splashed across her form, and simply because he was part of her team, Holly shot a temporary water repellent charm at Crocodile. He was made of bloody sand, and she did not need him to become useless because they were fighting on water for the moment.

"I can do it." She muttered to James, so no one on the door-boat thought her too insane. "What I don't understand is why we need these doors open." She mused louder.

James loosely explained what he did understand about it, "there is a powerful current running between here and Marineford, I don't think any ship can exit or enter it without leaving through one of the doors." Which meant there was a second door they had to pass on top of this one… she'd, she'd make it work.

A canon hit near their side and soaked Holly; she barely flinched, gazing at her now soaked shirt distantly. Ordinarily, she'd use a drying charm, but by this point, she couldn't cast anything else because of what she would soon have to do… twice. Holly didn't need to be wasting any more magic when she had to make a ship fly. Or perhaps sink. Holly recalled her fourth year and Durmstrang's ship, but no, she didn't know that charm. Flying was more draining magic wise, but less complicated casting wise.

"Stay with me!" the energetic ballerina, evidentially named Bon-Clay and a man, proclaimed as Jimbe suddenly dove under them to send them surging onto the desk of an enemy ship. Holly then didn't have the time answer. Her focus was on getting the boat to fly, not defending herself, nor taking out the Marines on the deck. Holly ducked under a swinging arm as Bon-Clay covered her side, he fought with his feet, kicking out brutally to smash Marines straight over the edge of the ship into the ocean. He was quick, extending and attacking faster than her eyes could catch. But Bon-Clay never left her side, he remained right beside her the entire time, protected her through the battle. Bon-Clay was doing his part as she'd do hers.

"Remind me to tell Ace he owes me some sort of reward after this."

"That's not something I want to hear from my daughter!" James cried.

"Eww," Holly muttered, horrified at the conclusion he'd jumped to- and the ship's deck suddenly exploded when Jimbe hurled a shock wave at it. Holly shot him a displeased look, it looked like that ship was not the one they were going to use after all.

They all moved a ship over thanks to that. Holly was carried under Bon-chan's arm when it became clear she couldn't quite make the jump. The moment they were over Holly darted for the wood, she let Bon-Clay fight and keep her safe, she focused on steadily carving runes for a spell she'd never attempted before. Each rune was boosted by the power of the elder wand in her palm. She cut symbols and signs into the wood of the deck while James followed and offered what help he could. He wasn't as good as Lily or Remus, but he did have a general idea of what could help, he'd needed runes for most of his inventions, namely the map, after all.

"Use this rune, it'll take less magic from you." He advised as the last Marine on deck dropped over the side of the ship with a scream.

"Add a tail to this rune it will allow you to-"

"Try an-"

The two of them worked in tandem as Jimbe vanished under the ocean while Crocodile, the guy with the swords for arms, and the blue-haired clown searched the lower decks for any more Marines. Well, Bon-Clay stayed at her side, observing her work in silence, and the 'clown' seemed more focused on standing at the helm and laughing in victory.

Interesting personalities the people from this world.

Time passed as she worked, Holly had no idea how much as she roughly scratched out a mistake and started again. As she linked the runes together and felt them steadily power up. With James' advice, she added a bit of recycling spell work so the magic she put into the runes could replenish. Like a fountain, except her magic was the water. Interestingly, he'd used such spells on the map, it was started when someone gave the password and offered their magic to the map, and stopped when the password to close the map was uttered.

It was a challenge, her brain was aching from the panicked effort Holly was putting forth. As she used every little bit of knowledge from her schooling and James' to get the job done. But it would work… it had to work.

Jimbe returned as she finished off the last rune on the helm of the ship. There she settled, dropped really, onto her knees to rest. Holly had the elder wand pressed between her palms as she mentally prepared for the spell she'd have to cast to get them in the air. Holly tried to meditate, to begin building what magic she had left so she could lift a damned ship with her power and some runes. Holly was rather confident that very few witches or wizards would be able to do what she was going to attempt, and fewer still would live through it if they tried. Holly was going to turn a Marine ship into Captain Hook's from Peter pan. Once she did it… well, she wished honestly that someone would be around that she could brag to. This was going to be a rather impressive bit of magic, not to toot her own horn or anything.

Jimbe approached the helm holding a small snail in his hands. Holly paid half her attention to him as he spoke into it and nearly lost her focus when Luffy's voice answered. That was one of the more bizarre things in this world. No wonder Ace hadn't known what a bloody phone was, not if that was how they communicated.

An order was given from Jimbe, he told Luffy to run straight into the water to reach the distant ship and told Holly to prepare herself, as if she wasn't already doing that. She gave him a sour look and earned an oddly fond smile in return.

The sound of whales distracted her from her thoughts. Holly stood from her position and saw them. Hundreds of whales breached the ocean's surface to literally bounce Luffy, every prisoner left behind, and Ivankov's giant head toward their stolen ship. Seeing that, Holly couldn't help herself, she laughed.

"This world is insane." But then again look who was talking.

Luffy and the group landed on their ship, and Lily dropped lightly beside them, looking utterly satisfied. Holly ducked her head sheepishly as her honest to Merlin mother looked at her. Lily beamed Holly's way while her hair fluttered at her sides oddly… solid looking. Holly caught it, the way her mother looked and opened her mouth to ask- when Jimbe interrupted her. He gave her a single firm look while people scrambled to prepare the ship for sailing. They unfurled sails, set up canons, they grabbed rigging and just acted despite being from a hundred different crews and places. They were pirates, born for the sea, they knew how to sail even while under attack and in unfamiliar territory. And sail they did, the stolen Marine ship made a solid line toward the enormous gates. While the strongest of their number brutally defended the ship, from Luffy turning into a balloon resembling Marge during her third-year summer. To the sword armed guy cutting canon's straight in half.

They were actually escaping.

"Holly-san, do it now!"

And now it was her turn to finish the job.

"Okay!" Holly turned toward the bow and lifted the elder wand firmly between her fingers. She stepped up and took a deep prepared breath and said to Jimbe: "If I pass out, slap me awake when we reach the next doors. Okay?"

"What?" he asked concerned, but Holly didn't respond; she was already starting a chant. Latin spilled from her lips, she uttered the words for flight, for aid from Mother magic, for a plea to the gods to assist her in her mission. It was all ceremonial nonsense, she thought, but Holly knew it was working when glittering magic washed across the deck and along the sail. As the ship jerked in place and slowly, achingly so, tried to lift from the water.

Awed voices exclaimed as they surged upward.

Holly chanted on as she felt the tug of resistance; the ocean wanted to keep her and the ship with it. Lost in magic, Holly recognized the ocean's surface as a living being, she felt it pull against her, and she almost lost her focus- and then Lily's voice joined her. Somehow it helped. Despite Lily being nothing but a spirit, Holly found the strength to rip the ship away from the water and send them soaring into the sky above.

Upward they went, the sail full as cannonballs chased after them despite how stunned the Marines were to acknowledge what they were seeing. Luffy was not idle either, he was awed by it as much as anyone else, but he also defended them actively and ensured her efforts were not wasted. Truthfully, it was good he did, for Holly knew that if she lost one of her runes, they'd brutally drop. Miraculously, it didn't happen, not as the wind caught her call to mother magic a full world away from Circe's grasp. Not as Circe's only touch to this world was Holly and was only just beginning to spread as a result.

The wind and mother magic seemed to push her forward, to give her power far beyond what Holly had left. As if mother magic was supporting Holly and the future she would change.

And the ship cleared the gates.

Everyone on the ship exploded in joy, they threw up their arms and screamed a call of victory. Only one man had ever escaped Impel Down, and now most of the prison had been emptied in one afternoon.

Holly felt herself smile as she saw the ocean spread out before them, as she started to lower the ship back into the sea with care. She wasn't a fighter, not really, but she was still damned useful. And- her magic, her tie to the runes snapped. The spell keeping them aloft died, and the ship plummeted straight out of the sky toward the ocean. Everyone on deck screamed, they all grabbed something to hold onto the boat lest they be thrown from it due to the drop. But Holly was dead to this. She'd finally pushed too far, and everything had gone black.

She didn't notice the fall. Didn't hear her parents screaming her name. And she didn't feel a pair of rubbery arms wrapping securely around her middle before the ship itself crashed into the water.


	12. Chapter 12

Five obnoxiously sharp nails broke through the skin and muscle of Holly's side. They sank deep into her skin, and a chemical was pumped in. A moment passed, two, and then Holly Potter came awake with a shriek. She brutally wrenched away from the stabbing sensation in her side, hurtled back and away into a set of rubbery arms set to catch her. The small figure, much like her own, caught hold of her, and she shot a look upward after finding herself between a set of legs. Above her was a brightly smiling face though it took her an honest moment to figure out who the person was.

"Luffy." She realized. Ace's brother was holding her, and she tried to let herself relax, which was simpler thought than done. Holly was on edge and could admit it, her heart was beating much too quickly, and she had the sudden and brutal urge to just… run.

"Holly, you're awake!" Luffy greeted. He held her shoulders almost protectively even as her hands shook, and a part of her was desperate to stand and move.

"That my dear, was a shot of adrenalin. It's effects are temporary."

Holly snapped her head toward Iva, who was once again male. His nails were elongated but shrinking and had a small amount of blood on them, her blood, Iva had stabbed her. "A shot of what?" she echoed.

"You requested to be awakened at the second gates." That was Jimbe at the helm.

"The shot will drastically increase the amount of adrenalin within your body and it should last several hours, it will allow you to fight beyond your bodies limits." Fight?

Ace!

"How long has it been?" Holly pulled from Luffy, staggered to her feet and swayed dangerously. She was magically exhausted, and should be deep in a healing sleep, to be on bed rest until her magical core recovered from what she'd done. Instead, she was on her feet, ready to do more. Holly didn't know if the adrenalin would actually help her; it got her body up and moving yes, but Holly didn't know if that would affect her magic. In the worst-case, Holly suspected she could permanently damage her core; the thought was terrifying. Holly didn't know if it was the fear of that scared her more, or if the adrenalin was just affecting her heart. In the end, it didn't matter.

"Two hours and forty minutes," Luffy answered perfectly aware of how long it had been, to the second. "An hour and twenty minutes until Ace is…" he trailed off. They weren't going to let that happen, there was no point in mentioning it. "Ace is at Marineford, we're going to save him."

Staring at Luffy, Holly found herself relaxing. She felt comforted by Luffy's confidence, hope hadn't always been the most natural thing for her to latch onto. Not after all the tragedies that continued to strike at her. Luffy was brimming with it though, and it was simple to follow his example. Nothing would stop them.

Holly turned around, cast her eyes around to check her surroundings. Ace would be upset that she hadn't done it immediately after waking. Most of the escaped prisoners were standing around Buggy The Clone with a surprising amount of awe on their faces. Clearly, she'd missed something when she'd been out with that, she'd ask Luffy about it later. Looking on Holly spotted her father and Sirius sitting at the… bow? The front of the ship. The two were staring toward the forming shape as it built in size as they sailed toward it. Following their gaze, Holly turned her attention to the second set of doors between her and Ace.

Perhaps it the awareness of how much magic was required to make the bloody ship fly over the doors, but the second set of them seemed far more daunting than the first. The doors themselves were probably the same size but enormous. Larger than Hogwarts had been, larger than any giant she'd ever seen. It was a show of power and control, and the Marines had to be compensating for something with them. "Probably got small pe-" she cut off when Luffy shot her a confused look, and she waved him off.

They were getting closer, and the doors were growing larger and larger by the second. The three, Jimbe, Luffy, and Iva, as well as just about everyone else on the ship, were counting on her to get this down. But did she have the magic for it? Holly pressed her fingers to her stomach and closed her eyes. Internally she sensed deep into herself. The adrenalin had woken her up, Holly felt like she was about to run straight into a quidditch match or fight Voldemort and was oddly ready for it. Holly was brimming with energy, but she had to know if that also applied to magic. The best way to tell would be to cast a rather simple spell, but if she had no magic, that would be a sure-fire way into unconsciousness. So Holly went with her own senses. She knew what her magic felt like, now she just needed to figure out if she had within her.

Emptiness.

Holly gripped her shirt. She couldn't accept that, couldn't accept that her body itself would so betray her right then. That it would let Ace- her soulmate die- there had to be something? She looked deeper and started to mumble to herself. "Magic is willpower, its mine. It'll obey me." She needed it, she needed her magic to cooperate right now. Needed her body to keep moving.

There.

Holly gripped tight to the energy within her, buried deep and almost out of reach, but there. She wrenched on it and snapped open her eyes to see the doors far closer than before; it was nearly too late to fly over them. Quickly Holly turned on her heel and marched toward the helm. Luffy and Iva watched her go, poorly concealed concern on their faces. She missed it entirely as she planted her hands on the helm to give her better access to the ship itself.

She could do this. She'd get them past the gates and then… then Luffy would finish the job. Holly turned toward Luffy and forced a smile: "I'm counting on you." She surprised herself with the comment. Holly, she'd always been the type to do it herself, and admittedly, from her history, that was precisely what she'd been taught. She had handled Quirrel, handled Tom, Pettigrew, the tournament. It had always been her, and yet, she honestly did trust Luffy to handle it. How odd.

Holly braced herself and-

"Pup, wait!"

She paused instinctively as Sirius popped up beside her. His hands went for her shoulders, he acted as if he could just grab her like he always had. They both tried not to let it show on their faces when his hands passed straight through her body. "Sirius?" Holly pulled her eyes from his hands and turned to his face displaying her confusion. Why had he stopped her?

"Save your magic."

"Save?" she gaped at him, unaware of the increasing perplexed expressions on Luffy, Iva, and Jimbe's faces, who watched her speaking to thin air. "But we need to get over the Gates! I have to-"

"I know," he soothed. Sirius reached his hands up, placing them just over her cheeks, he stared her down as he had when she'd been thirteen years old. Back when he'd been forced to leave her, back when she had only him as an inkling of a family. Back when it was just an orphan longing for family and an escaped convict who couldn't even stay with her. "I know you do, but it's better if you save your magic and trust Lily to handle this."

Still at the helm, James glanced their way. His posture, however, remained fixated on the looming Gates. He tapped his hand on his arm, waiting for it, waiting for the sign.

"Lily- to mom?" Holly pinched her brow. Actually, now that he was mentioning it, where was her mother? Holly hadn't seen Lily on the ship at all after she'd awoken, where was she? And how could she help? Lily was dead, as dead as James and Sirius were. There should be nothing that she could do-

A powerful grinding sound echoed from behind her, and just about everyone on the ship froze. Holly looked toward the gates in time with a dozen other heads as they slowly, impossibly, opened. The ocean twisted into a new current with the ship immediately followed it. A boost of speed sent them rushing for the growing opening between the door, the open doors.

"What is going on here?" Jimbe was gaping as much as any of them.

"They opened." Luffy blinked in surprise.

"What did she do?" was Holly's question to her parents, "how did she even do it?" her words caught Iva's curious attention. The man noted that once again, Holly was responsible for something impossible or, at the very least, had seemingly invisible allies that had done something. A curiosity the girl was, one as much as Luffy, if not more so. Iva had a feeling she, and everyone else present on this day should they survive, would be names to watch moving forward.

The Gates of justice were opening of their own accord even though the Marines themselves claimed they'd never allow them to open. Even if the control room for these particular doors was within Marineford itself. That was the thought they all shared. And while the simple-minded quickly believed, Buggy of all people, was responsible. Iva, Jimbe, and Luffy all looked to Holly, who was just learning precisely what Lily Evans could do.

A distance away, within Marineford itself, Rouge felt her eyes bugging out as a nondescript Marine rushed for the Fleet Admiral, Sengoku. The fleet admiral and Garp were the two men standing on either son of Ace's side atop a massive scaffolding. The appearance of it, the way it was built, was a brutal reminder of Roger's death. Had she been less distracted, the sight of her son in the same position would have brought Rouge to her knees. As it was Ace and Roger's accession to the execution platform couldn't have been different. Roger had been a king prepared for death, he'd planned to be where he was, he'd gone up casually and mocking. Ace… Ace had been forced to his knees as he'd struggled and fought every step of the way to his fate. Ace hadn't made his transport even the slightest bit easy. He'd knocked out a dozen guards once the paralytic Magellan had placed on him wore off. He'd struggled and bit at anything that came close to him. He'd fought.

It wasn't what Rouge expected when she made her deal with Lily; the original idea had been to get Holly fighting for her life and for Ace to be saved as a result. Instead, Holly had been saved, and now Ace was the one fighting. It was just as well Rouge decided, Ace and Holly both wanted to survive now, and it made all the difference in the world. In another world, Ace would have already given up. He would have accepted his fate as Roger, and Rouge would have screamed herself hoarse, invisible to all.

This Ace fought at his restraints forcing the Marines to focus more closely on him lest he actually break free. This Ace was well prepared not to use his haki and now long used to the feeling of working through the sea-stone attached to him.

True, Ace had been eventually overcome. He'd been shoved to his knees, chained by his ankles and hands with sea-stone to the scaffolding. He'd been surrounded by millions of Marines prepared for an all-out war. He had the best of the best guarding him, a figure that included his adoptive Grandfather - whom Rouge would take revenge on for this the moment the fool died - and countless others. Yet Ace still bared his teeth as the Marine skidded to a stop to speak to Sengoku.

"The Gates of Justice have opened without authorization!" The fool spoke loudly enough for Rouge and Ace to hear clearly, and they both arched an identical thoughtful brow, "we've lost contact with the control room!"

Ace's expression twisted into triumphant, which he didn't bother hiding. If it had been just Luffy within Impel Down, he might have second-guessed that announcement. However, with Holly also present, he knew she was the cause of that announcement somehow. Ace knew her abilities could not be locked down like a devil-fruit was. She could do anything, and everything she could imagine and getting into the control room of Impel down to open the Gates wasn't impossible with her around. Ace was only proven correct as the man continued.

"There's more, sir."

Ace tilted his head to listen ignoring Garp, who was well aware he was doing so.

"What could possibly be more?" Sengoku demanded. The man, shaking in his boots, pulled out a small portable den-den mushi. Over it, Magellan's pained voice came through- what in the hell had happened to him to sound like that?

_"Sir."_ The word was respectful, and Ace made a face. The Marines didn't deserve or work to earn that sort of respect in his opinion, _"we have looked at the footage as requested, and with Hannyabal's awakening, I can confirm the theory. The unknown goes by the name of Holly, and she possesses a teleporting devil-fruit."_

Ace snorted loudly, a teleporting fruit? That was what they'd come up with? Sengoku and Garp both shot dark looks at him, and Ace happily looked away, acting innocent. He avoided eye-contact with the fleet admiral as the man discussed the 'threat' level of Holly with Magellan. The Warden of Impel Down was under the impression that Holly could only teleport to where she could see. That was accurate-ish, but only because Holly needed to know a location first. But once she knew it, she could go back as many times as she wanted with her apparition. He grinned to himself if they thought all Holly could do was apparate, the Marines were in for quite the rude awakening.

Ace's expression softened despite himself. It was one thing to hear Holly and Luffy screaming for him, to know that they were coming despite rescue being virtually impossible. It was another to know they'd both gotten out alive from Impel Down. On that thought, Ace knew what was most likely was that Holly had teamed up with Luffy, which meant the two of them had broken out an entire prison just to chase after him. Those two, he ducked his head so the Marines couldn't see his smile, they were his family, and they were coming for him. They were coming to face the Marines' entire force despite how out of their league they were. Ace smothered the fear he felt for them under a confident expression.

Despite how impossible Holly was and how bullheaded Luffy was… they were outmatched here. They didn't stand a chance against the sheer number of Marines present. They'd be overwhelmed, drowned in the tide of this war, and Holly's advantage, her apparition, was now known the Marines. His stomach sunk farther. Yes, Holly's apparition was fast, but the admirals were trained to react, and they'd act before she got her bearings. Ace had learned it from experience. Holly was slower than him to adjust to her surroundings. He'd even been trying to teach her better, but they hadn't gotten there yet. No. Ace grit his teeth as the image slipped into her form. Holly, hovering over him and the admirals baring down on her- prepared- and Akainu snatching hold of her- No, no! She had more advantages than that, she did.

"Be prepared for their arrival," Sengoku announced, speaking to both Garp and the nearby Admirals: Aokiji, Kizaru, and Akainu. "There is a teleporter within the enemy forces. When she arrives… apprehend her on sight."

"Yes sir!"

Ace shot a dark glare toward Sengoku, who refused to look at him. Then he turned to Garp, Ace witnessed a flash of guilt before it was smothered, and his so-called Grandfather looked away. The damned old-man had picked his side. Clearly, Ace had been stupid to think Garp would ever have picked him like Luffy, and Holly had-

Something brushed his arm. Ace tensed up and shot a look to the side, but nothing was there. What was that? He glanced around subtly as the sensation occurred again. Something was touching his arm, but he couldn't see it. It felt like icy… fingers?

His brows shot up. The ghosts? He'd seen them hovering over him every time they'd pulled him to Holly's world. From what Ace had heard from folk-legend, and proven accurate by Holly, ghosts were supposed to be cold. Though if it was their ghosts, this would undoubtedly be the first time he could remember actually feeling one. But what else could it be? Ace knew they existed; he'd gotten a glimpse or two when pulled between worlds, and just because he hadn't gone back didn't mean they simply ceased to exist.

The grip on his arms tightened, and a shiver raced across his spine. The sensation was unworldly, alien; it was wrong. It felt like cold air puffed at his ear and sent goosebumps all across his body.

_"Th-ey're com-in-g."_

The voice was disjointed and feminine, and it made him cringe. There was something wrong with the pitch of it, and it echoed brutally in his head. Searching for its source, Ace cast his eyes to his left once again, trying to find the source, but he couldn't see it. Ace could, however, guess who brought that message and tried to show how crucial his next sentence was. "Tell her to stay away." He mouthed toward where he thought the figure was. The hand on his arm gripped tight, like frost burn, it bit at him. The cold was brutal against his senses, against the fire smothered under sea-stone. Ace nearly wrenched his arm away from it despite its good intentions. It hurt.

_"St-op tha-t!"_ The cold grew more potent, and he tugged at his arm to escape the grip, _"they love you, and ne-ither of them are go-ing to give you up. So you sit right here, and w-ait to be rescued. Be-cause they're coming, and we're go-ing to bring you home."_

To his left, he saw a flicker of red and a shape slowly forming at his side. Ace hurried to nod even though all he could focus on was the grip on his arm. Finally, she let go as he hissed a breath he couldn't entirely control as he caught sight of his arm. His skin where she had been holding on was iced up, frostbitten, and brutally red. Missing half a conversation Ace tried to focus on the blurry figure with Holly's eyes before she abruptly vanished. He looked for her for a moment before turning back toward the front, hoping Garp didn't notice the mark left behind. Though considering the man refused to look his way, it would be difficult for him to do so.

He was unaware as Lily flew away to reunite with her daughter with Rouge's shocked defensive words still echoing in her head.

Lily hadn't intended to hurt Ace. She hadn't even been aware she was doing it. Lily had no idea her touch had been burning him until Rouge had wrenched her back. Guilt grew in Lily's heart, and her aura darkened slightly. Her ability helped, it ensured the men and women within the control tower opened the Gates and were knocked out so they couldn't undo it. Her new status kept Magellan from chasing after her daughter. But it had also hurt Ace and… and Lily was beginning to realize she didn't have nearly as much control as she hoped.

She'd have to take greater care, less she does the same to her daughter.

* * *

Holly narrowly fell on her ass as the ship violently shook. They'd been caught in a wave, a tsunami really. All of them trapped on the ship as it was suddenly wrenched itself forward toward Marineford at a ridiculous speed. Only for the boat to stop just as suddenly as the entire ocean froze completely solid in an instant. The wave that had caught them had just stopped dead, and as Holly regained her footing, she was brutally reminded of the powers of Ace's world. Hours previous, she had made a ship fly. But the people here had created a tsunami from nothing, they had frozen the ocean itself as a show of power.

Moving carefully, Holly placed her hands on the railings on the left - port? - side of the ship and cast her eyes onward. Before her at the bottom of an enormous wave - nearly the same size as the Gates of Justice - lay Marineford. "Do you guys every do things small?" she asked, feeling positively exhausted as she took in the battlefield. It was beyond overkill, in her opinion.

Marineford itself was a man-made looking island with an enormous castle set dead and center. Buildings of regular sizes lay around it toward the left, right, and back. From her vantage point, Holly could see it was an island that typically must possess everything required for a regular city. The buildings, the ground, and just about every structure she could see seemed to be built with white and blue stone. It matched the Marines flags blatantly and pitifully. Then again, Holly could compare it to Sirius and his red and gold everything. The marines and her god-father took their flag pride to ridiculous levels. Even Sirius was better than them. They'd decided to write in giant letters the word 'Marines' across their main structure just in case you couldn't tell it was a Marine island.

Holly exhaled a light giggle. That was just sad she thought and moved her attention to the docks and swallowed thickly as she sobered.

The docks were in a crescent shape and utterly packed. Dozens of pirate ships - the black signs making clear what they were - surrounded the docks. The ships themselves were frozen in place due to whatever had frozen the ocean itself. The sheer number of pirates she saw there was a comforting sight, but the battle itself was not one. Holly could see a three enormous ships dead center in the bay; she assumed they had to be Whitebeard's ship. The man who's crew Ace was part of.

Whitebeard and the countless pirates down beyond were in furious battle against the Marines. From where she stood, they mostly looked like ants, the sheer number of Marines to Pirates making Holly feel a bit faint. This was beyond any number of people she'd ever seen. Beyond Kingscross, beyond the Great hall, beyond even the quidditch world cup. She'd never seen so many people in her life, and knowing they were all fighting to the death was impossibly daunting, especially as they tossed around abilities similar to magic like it was easy.

It was no wonder Ace had been rather unimpressed by Voldemort as she watched the distant battle. As people moved faster than she could even see. As people fought with greater strength than she could imagine and they were only small fry. They weren't even the most powerful warriors either.

This was a sea, a world of monsters.

This was Ace's world… hers now because of the choice she'd taken. She'd left her world- nope, no, she would think on that thought later.

Holly exhaled carefully and scanned for Ace, but he was impossible to make out from where she stood. The figures were just too small, and Holly didn't want to randomly apparate down, not without being sure she could grab Ace. So she turned away as Iva, Luffy, and the rest of their group started to hop off the ship itself to discuss their options. James and Sirius were waiting for her to do the same, as was Bon-Clay, who offered her a hand. It seemed he was taking his earlier order quite seriously even though it had been a temporary one.

"Holly-chan!" he greeted as she took his hand, and he helped her down from the ship. It was quite the height, so she was grateful for it, she would have had trouble - or would have had to apparate - to get down without him. Though it did make her crave a broom in hand. Everything would be more accessible if she were able to bring her Firebolt… and her tent, and all her world treasures- damn, she really had nothing to her name.

They landed on the ice below, and it only slightly jarred her knees as Bon-Clay took the brunt of the fall. She was quick to thank him though he waved her off with a bright thumbs up. Giving another glance toward the battlefield, Holly still couldn't see Ace, so she joined the planning group instead. Which consisted of the group arguing on how to get the ship unstuck. Personally, Holly agreed with Luffy, the easiest method seemed to just break the ice at the back and have the boat slide down the hill. Then they could circle the ice to the front and join the battle from the pirate's side.

"I could probably melt the ice," Holly reasoned, putting her own two-sickles in, "it'll act like an inner-tube on snow, like sledding..." A few shot her confused looks, causing her to trail off. Did they not have inner-tubes here? Or was it the sledding that did it? Ace hadn't been surprised by the snow of her world, so she could assume snow was still a thing. She could 'assume,' now that was a scary thought because she really didn't know. Biting her lip, Holly moved to explain, when a den-den Mushi, the odd little snail thing, started to speak on the ship above them.

_"' Calling all ships and troops, objective Tottz change formation and prepare for general strategy 3. Preparations are to be executed flawlessly-"_ Holly glanced back alarmed as the entire group focused on a nearby snail spouting off information.

"That's the marines," James explained because Holly had been unconscious the last time they'd heard such an announcement. She likewise wasn't entirely sure what a den-den mushi was. Not that it mattered, not as the sentence finished with a shocking statement.

_"-Once preparations are made, we will begin the execution of Ace in advance of the expected time."_

Holly's heart dropped straight out her chest to somewhere around her feet as she frantically spun on the spot. She, like every else in the area, started to freak at the same exact moment. They'd been expected a certain amount of time before Ace was executed. They planned to be given a bit of leeway to save him, and the marines had just cut that down to minutes.

"We've got to hurry!" she and the rest yelled, scrambling for the ship.

"Just wink!"

"Alright then- death's WINK!"

Holly reached the end of the ice scanning the ground so she could just apparate when Iva yelled something and- the ice shifted beneath her feet. Holly gasped as she dropped. It was like she had plunged downward with her broom, except Holly had no control of it. No, she had a more accurate comparison. It was like her third year after the dementors knocked her from her broom. She and the rest were plummeting straight out of the damned sky with frozen debris. Iva had shattered the ground, in the wrong buggering direction!

She bit back an alarmed shriek and grabbed for her wand as James and Sirius, unaffected by gravity, raced to catch up to her. Close by, Bon-Clay grabbed hold of her free arm and tugged her closer to him. He pulled her to his chest and twisted them, so when they hit, he'd hit first. And seriously? She'd just met the man! Why was he doing that-

"I'll be fine since I'm rubber!"

"Not helpful, Luffy!" Sirius of all people snapped even though he couldn't be heard.

"You want to be the only one to survive? NO?! THEN DO SOMETHING STRAW HAT!"

"I DO NOT WISH TO DIE LIKE THIS!" Iva panicked.

"Holly-chan!" Bon-clay cradled her carefully as James and Sirius arrived helplessly, grabbing for her.

"Holly spell! Spell! SPELL!" James yelled as his hands went straight through her body.

Buggering- Morgana's nasty- HELL! "ARESTO MOMENTUM!" she screamed, throwing the elder wand in a swift arc. She copied Dumbledore's spell from her third year. She felt her magic surged outward, catching hold of the people around her, the broken pieces of ice, and the full-sized battleship to drastically slow their descent. She struggled to lower everyone down safely as she realized there was a large opening of water directly beneath them.

Holly grinned, and as it enclosed, she snapped her wand to the side and broke the spell. She and everyone else then dropped the leftover distance, and the water enveloped them all. Holly instinctively, due to the freezing temperature of the water, wanted to gasp. Internally she groused because this was fourth year all over again. Freezing winter water and a rescue mission. Funny how all her time at Hogwarts kept helping her with Ace now. That was a bit ironic.

Holly grabbed Bon-Clay when the man went utterly limp in the water, her fingers clutched at his prisoner uniform, and Holly rushed to kick her legs. Swimming as she'd discovered in her fourth year was not something she was overly skilled at. This was due to being forced to miss all the swimming lessons her primary school offered. Not to mention Holly had always been left behind during 'beach' and 'pool' trips the Dursley's went on. Her inability almost caused a catastrophe during her fourth year. It was only due to Hermione that Holly didn't drown that year. However, there was a difference between swimming in a spelled swimsuit with gilly-weed, and swimming in a frozen ocean, fully clothed, while dragging someone behind her.

Holly would like to say she was grateful she'd dumped her robes earlier because, with them, she really would have drowned. As it was, Holly struggled against the ocean's pull, which seemed oddly determined to drown her. Holly would almost say the sea was alive, it had a presence that reminded her of mother magic. Like it was desperate to pull Bon-clay to the depths and her by extension. That, or she really was just that bad at swimming. Could be either really Holly reasoned.

Kicking frantically, Holly struggled for the surface. So focused, she missed Jimbe pause as he snatched hold of Crocodile and the Iva both to stare at her. He watched her legs kicking, a terrible swimming form, and watched her drag Bon-Clay to air and… she shouldn't be able to do that. Devil-fruit users were useless in the ocean, the proof was in Iva, Crocodile, Luffy, and Bon-clay. This girl should be the same; she should be limp in the water, one more soul for Jimbe to save, and she wasn't.

"What are you," he questioned before following her to the surface.

Holly breached the water and dragged Bon-Clay up so he could breathe. The man gasped for air but didn't move, it was surreal for Holly. Boy-Clay was alive, he was conscious, but he didn't try to swim, was this what happened to Ace if he fell in the water? Merlin, Holly would have to layer a dozen water-proof spells on him… actually, if she made him water-resistant enough and he fell in the water, what would happen?

Her nails caught the edge of the ice and then slipped. Holly made a face of irritation as she clawed at the ice and tried to drag both her and Bon's bodies from the ocean. She was too heavy. Holly's arm strength wasn't nearly powerful enough to get them both out while she just kept slipping!

"Holly-chan," Bon said, watching her struggle, "how… how can you swim?"

She didn't answer, she'd have to grab her wand, but that would require her temporarily releasing the ice or releasing Bon. Could she grab it again with a wand in her hand? She didn't know… she was so bloody cold- it was fourth-year all over again but without a damned warming charm!

Debating on letting go temporarily, a hand snatched hold of hers, and Holly felt her whole arm wrenched on. Luffy, standing on the shore with water dripping off his hair, grabbed hold of her and effortlessly pulled herself and Bon from the water's grip. Holly landed on her knees, coughing from exertion and freezing down to her very soul. "Thanks, Luffy," Holly exhaled as she pushed to her knees, then stood. Luffy nodded her way as she did so, then he turned toward the battlefield.

Holly took a moment before she did the same, Ace would chastise her for her lack of awareness, but Holly couldn't even move her fingers with how cold she was. He'd have to forgive her, exact motions were required for the kind of casting she was going to have to do to save him. So dry and warm, she needed to be. With shaking fingers, she reached into her pocket for her wand and hurriedly cast a drying charm on her body. Holly followed up with a warming spell for good measure. True, she looked rather like Bellatrix at the moment. The water and the drying charm had transformed her regular curls into a frizzy mess that was determined to stay directly in her line of sight. The line-of-sight issues was why Hermione had originally - as in after they left Hogwarts to hunt Horcruxes - suggested they cut their hair. Holly had, but as it had as a child, it grew back overnight. Which meant Holly had invested in quite the amount of ties for her hair during battles. Naturally, Holly had none at the current moment, because that was how her luck worked.

Glancing up, Holly tucked her hair as best she could behind her ears. Spotting what her team was doing, she heaved a sigh. She quickly decided Luffy and the people of Ace's world were insane. They weren't the slightest bit affected by the freezing temperatures and seemed fine now that they were out of the water. These people weren't human. The whole lot of them were posing unintentionally as they stared down the battlefield. Like their entrance had been wholly planned for and not a fluke and an accident. Holly rolled her eyes as she recalled she was the only woman in the whole group, not including whatever Bon-clay was - she didn't want to label it without asking - and Iva's gender-swapping.

Holly didn't really think about the fact that she was thinking about tying up her hair while the boys were posing or what the boys would think about where her thoughts had wandered to. Instead, Holly stepped forward and joined their number. She'd just have to deal. At least she wasn't feeling like a waterlogged kneazle.

Then again, perhaps she wasn't the only one bothered by the water.

"My makeup!" Bon-clay wailed.

"I have drowned! OR NOT!" Iva… for some reason, proclaimed.

"Hmm," Crocodile was completely dry due to Holly's spell, but he didn't understand why.

"How are you dry?" Jimbe asked, immediately picking up on the change. He was cataloging her oddities and wasn't the only one either.

Holly waved him off with a "tell you later," she scanned the battlefield and focused on the scaffolding. The entire battle had paused because of them, and Holly immediately hated the attention… until she finally caught sight of a figure knelt in the distance. She could finally make him out. Holly could finally see him.

"See him?" Holly tilted her head toward Luffy, and he nodded once sharply, he did.

"Ace." Luffy breathed out, looking for a moment surprised that they'd actually done it, they finally Ace within sight. Then, he took a breath that stretched out his chest and screamed out. "ACE! I FINALLY FOUND YOU!"

Holly straightened her spine as she was backed by the people from the prison. She watched reactions of their appearance spread outward. From the pirates' blatant surprise to a mix of shock on the Marines, but a few… a few looked unsurprised, and Holly pressed her lips together. Some of them were expecting them. She wondered what they knew though it had to have been Magellan to report them. Dismissing the general chaos, Holly centered her attention on Ace. Everyone was currently focused on Luffy, Iva, and Jimbe, who were all big shots and names. Jimbe was apparently resigning, Iva was something called a revolutionary and Luffy clearly had some history with some key figures. But no one was paying attention to Holly. She could apparate right there and- and at her left Crocodile moved.

Holly knew it, she knew he wasn't to be trusted, and he suddenly hurled himself toward a very tall man nearby. It distracted her. She turned around because that man was centralized, so he had to be Whitebeard even though he didn't have a white beard or a beard at all. That man had to be Ace's captain, and she couldn't let him get killed here- her spell- Holly choked stepping forward and changing her apparition point in an instant. She apparated between Whitebeard's back and Crocodile a split second after Luffy did. The two of them acting at the same moment. Luffy lifted his arm, and in time with him, Holly twisted her wand up, crying the first thing that came to mind.

"Expelliarmus!" her spell struck just as Luffy's foot crashed into the man's hooked arm.

Crocodile choked as Holly's spell struck his chest, and he was sent hurtling away. Holly breathed out in relief, got to do so for only a moment before she felt a set of intense eyes at her back. She turned slowly to find a man twice as large as Hagrid staring down at her and Luffy. Holly quietly choked and stepped back, away from the intimidating figure like she'd initially done with Hagrid. But there was no corner to hide in now, not unless she counted Luffy, who dragged four times as much attention she did without effort. Unfortunately, Whitebeard noticed them both, though his focus seemed to be mostly on Luffy. Holly smoothly moved until she stood with Luffy between them.

"You're here to save your brother then? I hope you understand what you're fighting. You'll be throwing your life away." His giant eyes flicked to Holly, who straightened her spine inexplicably. This man, he was intimidating in a way, unlike Dumbledore. The headmaster had always carried an air of disappointment around with him. He'd acted like he was expecting her to better, always. Holly always felt guilty in his presence, like she'd done something wrong when she'd just been doing her best. Funny how she was slowly recognizing only now that she genuinely had done her best and that it should have been good enough… for Ace, for her parents watching over her, for the Weasley's, and Sirius, Holly had done enough.

This man was different. He looked at her, and she got this bizarre feeling in her chest. Yes, he was basically telling them they were too weak for this and to sit back and not get involved. Still, Holly got a distinct feeling that he was actually trying to protect them. It was bizarre. Having something look at her and actually not want her to throw away her life. Holly didn't know what to do with it. Didn't know how to react to Ace's captain.

Luffy did though.

"Shut up!" Luffy snapped. Holly shot him a surprised look, bloody hell he really was fearless, wasn't he? "It's not your job to decide that! I've heard about you, you want to be king of the pirates. Well, the one who's going to be king of the pirates is me!" Luffy grinned ferociously, "and the one to save Ace will be Holly and me!"

She jerked at her name; Luffy looked away from Whitebeard, dismissing the powerful man on a whim to stare her down, and then he snatched hold of her arm. Holly realized instantly that Luffy had noticed what no one else had. Or perhaps he'd just instinctively guessed that if she was going to teleport, then he'd need physical contact with her. "right Holly?!"

Holly didn't hesitate, "Right!" she screamed right on back, feeling quite bold thanks to Luffy. She felt brave enough to smirk at Whitebeard 0- Ace's bloody father - because Luffy was right. They would be saving Ace, and they'd do it easily. "Hold tight Luffy!" Holly squeezed his fingers, "I'm bringing us right there!"

The Whitebeard pirates at large had no idea what she could do or what she and Luffy were planning. They could only watch as Holly tossed her head toward the scaffolding to memorize it even from a distance. Luffy tightened his fingers to an almost painful level as he braced himself. He brought one fist up, ready to punch, and expanded his stance in a fighting one.

"Ready!"

They were getting Ace back now!

Holly began a slow countdown to brace Luffy and her own mental fortitude. This would be the most crucial apparition of her life so far.

"Three." Ace was hers, her soulmate, her friend… the one she loved. Ace was her future, and the key to a lifetime of possibility, he was the one she wanted to share her life with. Holly was absolutely not letting him die here. She would let no one take him and that possibility of true happiness away from her. Not again. This wasn't third year, she wasn't a child any longer. She was a grown woman, and her fate was hers to steal back. Holly was not failing this.

"Two." Luffy's gaze burned toward the scaffolding as dormant energy within him twisted. It had been slowly building from the moment he'd learned of Ace's fate, or perhaps even before that. Whatever it was, it was his to use to save his brother, and Holly was the key to that. He'd seen her within Impel Down. Watched her vanish and reappear a distance away with a loud crack of sound. It was clear she had a devil-fruit. Luffy immediately realized that she was only teleporting where she could see. The moment she could see Ace in Marine hands, they could grab him, and Luffy held her hand to ensure he wasn't left behind in this. Holly could do it, they could save Ace together.

Destination, determination, and deliberation. "One!"

Holly's heel scratched across the deck of the Whitebeard ship, the Moby Dick. Everything went black around her, and for a moment, a split second she couldn't breathe; the familiar red-hot bands of magic shoved brutally at her lungs. She was being squeezed on all sides. But it only lasted a moment, because this was her smoothest apparition that Holly had ever done. It was near seamless. There was no crack of sound on either side. She and Luffy were simply there, and then they weren't. The crossed an entire battlefield, and entire island worth of Marines in the time it took the average person to blink. On top of this, there wasn't even a drain on her magic. It was as if her magic just knew how crucial this was to her.

The world returned, and she was there. Ace was right in front of her knelt and already searching for her, he already knew she was going to do it, he knew what to look for. Ace's eyes met hers, and Holly felt something surge in her chest. She'd finally reached him. He was in reach.

Luffy and Holly both reached forward at the same moment. Their hands grabbed for Ace as the two Marines closest to Ace twisted, one yelling a warning, and the other almost hesitant to stop her. Holly witnessed the first marine start to turn pure gold as he punched out. But he was too slow as Holly's hands snatched Ace's bicep, and Luffy's caught Ace's shoulder. Holly spared only a moment to bask in the fact that she was actually touching Ace for real, no haki involved, before she was twisting- picturing the ship she'd just been on-

Ace yelled something-

-fingers dug deep into her ankle.

There was a day in her childhood, though she didn't know how old she'd been, that Aunt Petunia had ordered Holly to cook breakfast. It had been an early experience with the kitchen, and she'd been a bit clueless about what she was supposed to do with a frying pan. Holly distinctly remembered the smell of the bacon as she set it in the pain just as she remembered the oil spitting up at her. The actual moment of contact was a blur. But Holly recalled wrenching her arm back out of sheer surprise. She remembered distantly, in a sort of disconnected way, that it hurt. But the actual pain faded in time.

That pain, that sudden jarring heat, was something she hadn't experienced often. It was different from the crucio that stolen across her entire body and left her shaking for hours after. It was different from a hex and the sharp stabbing sensation that came from it. It wasn't even like the horntail's flames because a dragon species like that tended to attack with his tail more than it's fire. However, Holly didn't know how else to express the sudden instinctual flinch that overcame her.

It was a deep-seated knowledge. It was human instinct.

Holly wrenched her ankle away the moment she felt the first contact. Knew with her entire being that she had to get her leg away from what held her. And all this occurred to her in the time it took Holly to complete her turn to disapparate.

And then white-hot agony took over her senses.

"Holly!" Ace's warning came too late.

She disapparated despite the white-hot burn shooting up her leg, and the world twisted brutally as she felt something in her side rip. Everything went black, and the squeeze nearly caused her to pass out as she completely lost focus on her spell. An instant later, Holly felt wood under her trainers, followed by her legs giving out. She crashed to the ground with twin voices crying her name. Holly exhaled a scream. The scent of burning flesh hit her nose, an unfortunately unforgettable scent she'd caught on multiple occasions. Except for this time, it was her that was burning.

Hands fluttered at her side, they danced up her arms and cupped her face. Holly could barely focus on them due to the searing pain in her side and leg. It was a pain she was helpless to escape even as someone- Ace- begged her to stay still. Even as arms locked her body down so they could help- but gods it hurt.

Holly was unaware that it was Ace's hands desperately trying to keep her still. He'd seen Akainu go for her, seen his molten fingers latch onto her leg. He'd been brutally prepared in that instant to throw himself between Akainu and his loved ones. Miraculously Holly had managed to apparate despite that. She'd succeeded at severing Akainu's arm from his body. However, as a Logia, Ace wasn't sure if that would be a permanent dismemberment, and at the moment, Ace didn't care. Regardless, Holly had brought them all to safety despite the Admiral burning her. Despite the magma still actively clinging to her leg.

As Holly dropped Ace yanked at the chains still attached to his ankles and wrists. He hopped over the links keeping his wrist together, bringing his arms to his front, rather than his back. He couldn't separate his hands due to the chains, but he could still help. Ace dropped to the floor beside Holly's fallen form while Luffy caught her body, uses his own rubbery one to cushion her fall. Luffy's hands fluttered helplessly, his mouth moving as if to call for someone who wasn't around, his eyes suddenly so young and expectant of Ace- as if Ace wasn't likewise panicked.

On sheer blind instinct, Ace grabbed for the magma to wrench the molten rock away from Holly. He grabbed at it despite his body not being made of fire. Swiped at it as Holly screamed, struggled, and thrashed- as she bled all across the deck from a wound he hadn't seen her receive. Shit, her leg was a mess- he could see her _bone-_

"Ace move! Let me see. Straw-hat hold her down, put your hands right here!"

Someone- no Marco - pushed Ace to the side and thrust his own hands forward. His hand, coated blue, pressed firmly against Holly's leg healing where he could. His other hand touched at her side, noticing and assessing what Ace and Luffy had missed in their inexperience and panic. Marco acted, he ordered them to proper action as Ace desperately tried to stop his shaking hands, he'd burned them severely- it had been so long since he'd been burned-

"Ace put pressure here!" Marco demanded of him before he could lose any more focus on the situation. It forced Ace to focus as he realized Holly was bleeding profusely from her side- he hadn't seen anything hit there. Ace obeyed Marco's order placing his hands over the large tear in Holly's side. His finger slipped slightly in the blood, but he refused to allow his hands to shake as Marco worked. Marco would save her, she wasn't going to die- again-

"It's okay, Ace! Holly's strong, she'll be okay." Luffy snatched his attention. His brother had his hands firm on Holly's shoulders, keeping her still as struggled against their collection grip. Against Marco's forcefully probing hands, Ace's digging into her wound, and Luffy forcing her to take it.

God- he couldn't stop shaking- he couldn't-

"Ace, my son."

Pops- Ace glanced up and saw his father a bare step away, he hadn't even realized the man was that close. Hadn't realized Holly had brought him to the Moby Dick in full view of two full-sized armies. She'd done that and while he'd been panicking, picturing her dead in his arms a second time. It had happened while the rest of the war's participants had been reacting in sheer shock. He'd missed Marco turning mid-flight toward them. Missed the bug-eyed surprise on the Whitebeard pirates and the smug satisfaction on Iva and Jimbe's face. As well as Admiral Akainu regrowing his arm and glaring their way if pure, abject, hatred - as if he cared about that.

"Oyaji…" Ace mumbled, guilt slipping into his thoughts.

"Find your breath, my son, she will be fine."

Ace bit his lip, Luffy, and now his father, both of them were actively trying to calm him down. How easily Holly did that to him, made him forget nearly everything else that existed. Was this common? Ace didn't know. He'd never been in a relationship before… and still hadn't. He and Holly were not dating. Ace hadn't even told her he loved her yet…

"Move your hand a bit Ace, let me see," Marco said, interrupting his thoughts. Ace hurried to comply, not wanting to impede his brother's work in any manner.

Marco had done what he could for Holly's ankle. He was now focused on the bloodied wound under Ace's palm. Marco quickly noted the damage to his brother's hand, the burns were severe, a cost of placing his skin in contact with magma without coating his palm with haki. Ace would, unfortunately, have to deal with it for the time being. So Marco turned his attention to the clinically severed skin at the girls - Holly? - side. The shape was alien to him; it resembled nothing that Marco had seen before. It was almost like a large chunk of her belly had simply vanished. Not cut, not burned, saw, severed, there was no trace of a weapon being used. It was just gone. More complicated to that, Marco had seen her at the scaffolding, no one had gone near her side. So, where did the wound come from?

"How did she get this?"

"'Splinched,'" Ace answered as a memory resurfaced of Holly mentioning it when they'd first started apparating together, "her… teleporting, if she's not focused, she can cut off parts of her body by accident." Ace looked at the scaffolding, and the furious Sengoku already yelling his orders to prevent their escape. He was lighting a fire under the Marines asses, citing that the battle had been lost, but the war was from over. Unfortunately for them all, Sengoku was right. Because although Ace was free, they still had to escape, and they were all currently trapped by Aokiji's frozen wave.

"Why didn't that happen to us?" Luffy asked, unaware of the building frenzy. It was like a buzzing swarm with frantic plans being made for this unprecedented outcome. The Marines hadn't imagined Ace would actually be rescued. They'd planned a hundred different paths, and they all involved killing Ace long before the Whitebeard's even got close. Holly and Luffy had effortlessly destroyed all those ideas in ten short seconds. Now, everything had changed, and the winner would be the side to adapt quicker.

"Didn't want you hurt," Holly's whispered, she spoke up despite the pain in explain. Ace snapped his attention back to her just in time to catch her searching fingers, she gripped her palm fast and linked their fingers together. Desperately Ace tried not to think about how cold her hand was. Because this was the first time he'd ever done, the first time he'd been able to physically touch her, and Ace wished he could savor it. Wished she wasn't bleeding out in that exact moment. Wished his family wasn't being slaughtered in droves right behind him.

Ace had a lot of wishes.

"I focused on you," Holly mumbled. Her body was curling toward Ace, and away from Marco's probing touch, she felt like she was burning. Her nerves were on fire, like the cruciatus curse except brutally located on her ankle alone. The worst part of it was that there was no spell on her. That pain would not go away because she defeated the caster- gods… was this- was this why Neville's parents went mad? To feel this on their entire body for hours-

"Stupid," Ace chastised Holly and pulled her attention back to him. He kept her focused on him, on his hand, while Marco's hand lit up blue with healing flames. Ace was going to owe his brother so much for this. The first division commander to be so focused on one person while the others fought- Ace was more grateful than he could possible expression. "Do you have any potions, Holly?" If she did, they could be given to his brothers, unless they wouldn't work on 'Muggles."

"Dunno… didn't check." Holly winced as Marco dug into her side to pull the sides together, so she didn't bleed out. She'd have a brutal scar from the injury Marco thought… if she survived it. Going off Ace's expression when she'd been injured, he dearly hoped she did. "Maybe in my pockets? I don't have my- ah! My…" she winced and forced the word out in a cough, purse,"

Ace started to hunt through her pockets, he didn't bother with the ones that weren't bottomless as her famous purse was. Her front pockets were normal, but her back left was bigger on the inside. Ace reached down, his arm vanished up to the elbow while Marco and Luffy's eyes bugged out at the sight. Then, his fingers caught fabric, and he pulled to reveal a rather ugly looking cloak. Ace tossed it to the side for the time being, he didn't need that.

"Nothing," he exhaled with a bitter taste in his mouth. If only Holly had been able to bring her things, those potions would have saved countless lives- damn.

"Sorry."

"S'fine," he ran a bloodied hand through her hair, he was covered in her blood and some of his own. "Just rest… I've got you," Ace looked to Marco, who nodded, then to the battlefield. Robotic humanoids were attacking their allies and blocking off their escape route. Aokiji was expanding out the ice field, so even the allied ships couldn't go anywhere. Akainu, Ace couldn't even see that man and Jozu was currently going toe-to-toe with Kizaru. It was a bloody mess, even with their father hurling orders.

Ace should… he should be fighting- but with the sea-stone shackles and Holly in the state she was, not to mention Luffy looked ready to drop on the spot from whatever he'd faced in Impel Down, could Ace really leave them? Could he even make a difference?

Holly blinked slowly, felt the pull of unconsciousness nudging her once more, and tried to focus on Ace's face. He was staring outward, his expression pained as people screamed, and explosions went off. But Ace's hand was still in hers, he was safe, Ace was with her, he was safe- Ace shifted, looked down, and brought Holly's attention to his wrists as she heard a clink of chains, the noise caused her lips to pinch.

Not yet, she had things she needed to do.

Holly reached out her hand and brushed her fingers against the sea-stone shackled still attached to Ace's body. She wrapped her fingers around the metal before saying in a weakened whisper: "Alohamora."

The weight which Ace had grown to live with, dropped off him. The sea-stone chains popped open without a key, and he felt for the first time since his arrest, his flames lick to life. Ace reigned them in as the skin as his arms sparked against the frostbite left by Lily. While Whitebeard and Marco both realized the widely assumed 'teleporter' wasn't entirely accurate. Neither of them said a thing about it either. Not as Luffy dropped onto his butt to rest. Marco swiftly moved to stitch up Holly's side because actual surgery would have to wait. Not as Whitebeard turned his attention to the battlefield and the war still raging.

"Can we nap now?" Luffy asked as he leaned back on his hands. He was exhausted, beyond exhausted. He'd pushed his body far past its limits and beyond what was considered 'human,' to save his brother—a brother who was now safe and sound.

"No," Marco snarled. None of them should be even if the girl needed it; however, in the situation, none of them could afford to. Marco finished his last bit of stitching. It was a shit job, patchwork at best, and it would scar terribly, but it should hold as long as she didn't aggravate it, and that would have to do. Because the war was still raging, and he didn't have the time or resources to be neat.

"Fall Back!" Their father ordered as the war exploded onto a new level. Now with the Whitebeard's trying to escape and the Marines desperate to stop them. "Marco!" his captain called, seeing he'd done all he could. Marco didn't need to be told twice, the ice needed to be dealt with, and their flank defended. Orders needed to be given. The plan they had adjusted. He was needed.

"Do not move from here," Marco ordered the girl as she drooped, then he turned to Ace aware his brother would throw himself into battle at a moment's notice. That was something they couldn't have. Ace was the exclusive target of the war. If he left this ship, then every damned Marine would be gunning for him. "Keep her here, if she moves she's dead! Do you understand me, Ace?"

Ace nodded as Marco put the fear into him. Truthfully it wasn't quite that drastic, but Marco was taking advantage of the situation. He needed Ace to stay. Marco had this terrifying feeling in his chest that if Ace returned to the battle, Ace would die. Marco couldn't explain why he believed that to be true, Ace was strong enough to defend himself and survive. But the instinctive thought caused Marco to act, so he threatened the worst case, it was his prerogative as a doctor and older brother.

Intentions made clear Marco turned back to the battle and launched off the ship to rejoined the fight. He left Luffy, Ace, and Holly behind his father, who'd protect them without pause or failure. He left behind the key players on their side in one spot, their father, and the main target of the battle.

Left behind, Luffy dropped entirely onto his back and took a moment to breathe. He was feeling reasonably faint now that Ace was safe. The days worth of fighting and pain he'd put his body through was catching up now that he could relax, and Luffy could, or so he believed.

At the same time, Holly, dipping in and out of consciousness, squeezed tight to Ace's hand. Roger's warning echoed in the back of her head, and though the world was blurring, she still knew she had to keep Ace from the man known as Akainu. Thankfully Ace was still too frozen by Marco's warning to even think about leaving yet. Instead of going, he gripped her hand back and slowly realized it was the first time his hand had been in hers. The first time they were in the same place physically.

"Holly." Ace breathed out, squeezing her hand. She'd fought against death itself, had escaped Impel Down with Luffy and crossed worlds to reach him. She'd done all that- why had she done all that?! "Why." He stared down at her as she struggled to breathe. Fought against the fifth-degree burns at her leg and her nerves screaming at her- gods it hurt- it hurt- it hurt- "why would you do all this for me?" He hadn't even told her the truth, how… how had she even known to come for him? How had she even survived? He had so many questions, and now was the worst time to even begin to want to ask them.

Ace bent over, he twisted his body until his forehead to tapping against hers. His eyes clamped closed, and he just breathed. He'd hadn't said it to Marco and his father yet, or really even to himself before this. But Ace intended to marry her one day. It had been a distant idea in the back of his head when he'd been nothing but a spirit; it had been impossible before this moment. Now it actually was possible, and Ace could admit that he wanted it. Funny how quickly he wanted it, especially considering Ace hadn't even told her he loved-

"I love you." His eyes snapped open and met Holly's, though in pain, she was smiling at him as she spoke the exact words he'd just been about to, "moron." Holly added as she squeezed his hand still her own.

"Holly?" She… she'd just done it- this freaking woman-

"I shoulda' said it before," Holy mumbled, "but I was scared because…" she bit her lip unwilling to admit how much of her temporary death had actually been planned. Holly settled for most of the truth, "I wanted you too much. I was ready to put you first before anything else…" she chuckled weakly, "I did do that anyway, didn't I? Before my own world." Holly didn't even know how the war turned out and suspected she never would. But, she'd done her part, she could give no more than that. "Clearly, that means I love you. But it should still be said… that 'I love you.'"

Ace choked on something that might have been a sob if he'd actually let it loose. There it was. The future laid out before him in a set of bright green eyes. An endless ocean he wanted to show her, a family he wanted to build, a life he wanted to have, and it was possible. Sure the Marines knew his father now. Sure they'd hunt him and Holly to the ends of the Blue's, but with her magic and his strength, the Marines wouldn't stand a chance. The future was theirs to steal.

"Psst Ace," Luffy leaned into his line of sight awkwardly, his brother was sitting right beside them both. As a result, Luffy had been privy to Holly and, Ace's entire conversation and a rush of embarrassment took over Ace.

"What?" he demanded of his brother while trying to contain the mortification.

"Now is when you say it back."

Oh, gods. Ace near about-face planted, why, why was this happening?

Holly burst out in pained laughter when Ace's eyes shot for the sky. Giggling to herself, Holly explained simply in a stage whisper: "you can't force it Luffy."

"Eh?"

"No, you can't," Ace agreed superiorly, "which is good because I don't have to." He looked back at Holly, "because I love you too, Holly."

Her eyes crinkled happily despite the pain, while Whitebeard looked away with a roll of his eyes. Young love, honestly. Edward Newgate was pleased to see one of his sons find someone to spend the rest of his life with… in prison apparently. Or perhaps when Ace had been chasing after Teach? Whitebeard didn't honestly know the timing. He was equally pleased that Ace found someone, his young son needed someone in his life, and the girl, from what he'd seen, was undoubtedly a good match for him.

He was happy. Delighted to see such joy and love from his beloved son when such anguish and despair had been on his face only moments ago. The change made it easy for Edward Newgate to welcome his newest daughter into the fold, even though she didn't know it yet.

"Good." Holly smiled as the world went black at the edges.

"Holly?"

Holly let herself fall backward into unconsciousness. It was probably the blood loss… but… she needed a… nap…

* * *

Rouge didn't bother dodging the Marines she flew through in pursuit of one young man. Not as Aokiji made a B-line for the very same target she was flying after. Rouge left a trail of chilled Marines behind her, probably under the impression the sudden cold had to do with their Admiral and not from the long-dead Pirate Queen. Rouge gave the Marines, and some unfortunate pirates, little mind as she rushed passed Admiral Aokiji. Her goal was to beat the bastard to the blue-haired kid he was moving to apprehend, or worse.

Rouge had seen very few of the former crew out and about after her death. The exception of that had been Shanks, whom Ace had purposely and cluelessly sought out. Now, the second cabin boy had made his appearance in her line of sight, and as Rouge had sought out the clown. Especially considering what he'd been so stupidly wielding, Buggy, even grown, was still a moron who didn't realize the power of information.

Marines were all the same no matter the age. The world government controlled the information, they said who was bad and good, and their word was readily accepted. The Marines said Ace was devil's spawn, and nothing else mattered. Not the wonderful young man who'd rescued people in poor countries. Who let a little girl eat all his food because she was hungry. Who put himself between a young-woman and a mad-man trying to kill her because he happened to like her.

Information… that was powerful, and Rouge was a little tired of the Marines controlling it exclusively.

Rouge hurled her arms out as she reached Buggy. The former cabin-boy held a den-den mushi in his fingers, the only one still broadcasting. The snail held a direct connection to the rest of the world, it showed the war to the people of the world. Like a young blue-haired princess praying for a teen who saved her country to survive. To a dozen souls on Sabaody Archipelago who'd become crucial players in the world. And Rouge felt her hands coat with haki at that last second.

She only had a moment- just a moment-

Rouge snatched the den-den mushi out of Buggy's hands a split second before Aojiki made contract freezing Buggy and his escaped prisoners. A slow smirk grew on her face as Rouge took to the air and shot toward the nearby wall. See if the Marines could find the snail now.

Unlike James, she still had a minimal amount of energy left, and she knew exactly what she was going to do with it now that Ace was freed and at Holly's side. After all, an entire world had just heard Ace was Roger's son, and Rouge wanted to make sure the Marines didn't twist up that information any more than they had.

"How about another game of cat and mouse eh Marines?" Rouge cackled as she soared away, careful not to run out of energy. She couldn't save Ace with what she had left, but holding a den-den mushi for a little while? That she could do.

* * *

Lily twisted her body through the air to land lightly on the ice. As she did, she lifted her head and snarled as her hair floated around her. Her hair was acting like it was under a different gravity than the rest of her body; it was slow to move, like something was holding tight to it, like it had its own mind. Lily paid little thought to the acts of her hair though, not at her target easily dodged another of her attacks. This man she could admit her stronger than Magellan, but she wouldn't let it stop her.

Back and forth, Lily had flown across the battlefield. Heading back to warn Holly only for her daughter to apparate straight to the scaffolding before she could. Lily had blindly chased after Holly and Luffy and had witnessed one of the Admirals of the Marines snatching hold of her daughter's ankle. The scream that escaped Holly when he had chilled Lily's very soul and a part of Lily chipped away.

Banshee, it was a throw-away beast in a class Lily hadn't taken, but now that was what Lily was becoming. Lily didn't overthink how she had gained her abilities or what had changed within her very soul to cause it. Not until Lily had accidentally given Ace frostbite, but she'd been forced to dismiss it because of the war affecting her children. Just as she scarcely noticed that her body was becoming more solid and pale with every moment and that her thoughts were growing more and more disjointed-

Lily's eyes were blank, and a soft keening noise was escaping her. She focused her attention on Akainu as he walked away from a balding pirate. On the beast that had harmed her child, Lily didn't acknowledge that Ace and Holly had safely returned to Whitebeard's ship. All she knew was her daughters scream, and Ace's terror-filled cry and Lily's attention couldn't be pulled from it. She brutally launched at Akainu, and nothing would deter her.

Her claws rent into the man's face causing massive frostbitten wounds where she'd managed to touch him. Then the battle between them started as he jerked back, searching for her. Due to the changes within her, Akainu was able to locate her form quickly. Lily floated feet off the ground, her clothes and red hair wiped about her as if there was wind. Her eyes were dead, and her mouth was opened as she breathed out something that would grow into a brutal shriek. Then she attacked.

Lily had no magic in death, all she hand were her hands. She clawed at Akainu, tried to grab at his eyes and throat with actions more similar to an enraged civilian than a genuine threat. Akainu found it effortless to dodge her, and he waved an arm at her form. One blow with his magma and the 'thing' would be gone. His magma coated where she'd been standing, and he turned away already bored with it- and claws rent down his back. He snarled, twisting to look back, and she, she was unharmed. The woman was uncaring of his magma, it didn't affect her?

Lily clawed for Akainu's head again as Holly and Ace's pained, and frightened voices echoed in her head- as people died all around her, Ace's people- and the noise in her throat built- her thoughts rushed on repeat-

Kill him- erase him- protect them- kill-kill-killkill-ll

She charged with a scream, and people all around her covered their eyes as the very sound shook down to their souls. She was a budding banshee. Hair twisting up and tangling in the air, claws creating great frozen grooves wherever she could touch. Lily attacked again. Attacked again. Attacked again.

"A berserker," Akainu muttered to himself, "she attacks blindly and…" he looked as men and woman on both sides dropped due to the sound. That was… useful. He dodged her follow up strike and brushed his hand through her body. It was impenetrable even with haki. Also helpful, no one could stop it… if the woman was in the right spot- he shot a look at the Moby Dick and an unholy smirk grin on his face.

Akainu herded the creature toward where he wanted her. She had no thought behind her attacks, just as she gave no mind to who was cut down in her path to him. He wasn't sure what he'd done to anger the creature, but he could use it. Especially as it's screams grew harsher with every missed attack, people started dropping from the noise alone. They foamed at the mouth. They bled out from their eyes and ears. Their eardrums blowing, and their very brains twisting to avoid that sound.

Akainu avoided their fate purely due to his Logia status. He sought to take advantage, no matter how many Marines fell as a result.

"LILY STOP!" Sirius followed the chaos Lily left behind. He went unheard by Akainu and overlooked by Lily, Sirius very well knew what was happening. He'd seen their pirate allies drop because of Lily's screaming, had seen dozens die under Lily's hands because she'd accidentally attacked the wrong person while targeting Akainu. And Sirius saw Akainu was herding Lily toward Whitebeard's ship. Saw him pull her toward Ace and Holly both, and she didn't even notice.

"LILY!" He grabbed at her, unaffected by her screams because he was already dead. No, that wasn't quite right. It hurt down to his very soul but- but he had to stop her. If she harmed Ace or Holly by accident, she'd never recover. "STOP!" his hands clutched at her arms, but she was stronger than him, she dragged him on.

There was nothing he could do alone. But if this continued-

"JAMES! ROUGE!" he tugged at Lily's arms as one of the Whitebeard commanders dropped when he got too close. The man fell to his knees, struggling. His hands clamped to his ears, a show of his strength even if he too was forced motionless by Lily's power.

James, as far as Sirius knew, was nearby trying to recruit. People were dying on the battlefield, and he, like Sirius, could see the reapers moving souls on. The reapers overlooked them because they'd already made their choice, but the newly dead, they hadn't, and James was using that to their advantage. He was grabbing them before the reapers could force them on so they could be used for a short period. James was trying to convince them to use whatever energy they had after their death to do something. Was telling them it was possible. Unfortunately, the newly dead were hard to communicate with. Either they didn't acknowledge what happened or couldn't function with the truth of it.

It didn't stop James from trying.

Rouge meanwhile, Sirius had long ago lost track of her in the chaos. He thought he'd seen her on the scaffolding, but after Holly and Luffy grabbed Ace, he'd lost track of her. He suspected she was moving toward the kids but couldn't be sure.

"Damnit. Lily, stop!"

A set of small hands grabbed Lily's other arm, and he shot a look to the side. It was a pirate, a teenager, with a bloodied gaping wound through her middle. She'd added her hands to his own to stop Lily, though she clearly didn't understand why it was required. Instead, she looked at Sirius with a clear question on her face.

'Would this help Ace?'

Not for the first time that day was Sirius awed by how much Ace touched the lives of the people around him.

He nodded.

"Carton! Help me!" she yelled to a nearby figure, staring down at his corpse blankly, "CARTON! HELP ACE!" and the man lifted his head. He watched the two of them dragged across the ground as Lily struggled to rip Akainu apart. As she led closer and closer toward the Moby Dick. Then he acted. His hands joined theirs, and finally, Lily started to slow- her head cracked as it swung toward them, furious for they dared to stop her. And Sirius, for once in his life, was absolutely terrified of Lily when he realized her eyes were completely and utterly blank. There was no soul there. And it petrified him.

And then Lily started to scream.

Sirius and his helpers dropped on the spot with a cry. They covered their eyes to the noise as the wind picked up around Lily.

Akainu backed off eyes narrowed as the woman dropped to her knees and just shrieked. He scowled. She was too far from the Moby Dick to be effective. No matter. She was serving her purpose in the end, because she'd created a wall in the middle of the battlefield that no one could cross. Any who tried dropped on the spot.

He turned away and moved toward the Moby Dick.

Sirius watched the man move away and tried to crawl after him, but he couldn't move. The pressure of Lily's magic, or perhaps her soul, kept him flat on the ground. He was trapped. And a murderer was heading toward his pup. There was nothing he could do, nothing but watch as Admiral Akainu lifted his hands and shot pure magma into the skin above. Sirius was frozen at huge gaping chunks of molten rock crashed back down right on the ship where Holly, Ace, and Luffy had just been.

* * *

Ace's hands were shaking, and it wasn't from the pain. Holly's head was resting on his leg, her presence was a steady one that allowed him to feel every breath she took, and every inhale was a sign of her living. Ace could see Holly breathing, could watch her chest rise and fall, and though she was far too pale and her expression pained in sleep, Holly was still alive. Just like Luffy was. Luffy was feet away with his eyes scanning the battlefield, somehow Ace's fight loving brother was now acting a defensive position. Luffy sat at the railing, punching any Marine that dared get too close, and he seemed shockingly content with that.

And there Ace was, free of sea-stone, free of the Marines - sort of - and just… sitting here.

Marco and his father had both given him the order to stay. Marco, in caution of Holly's life, Whitebeard in understandable order so that Ace was not taken back by the thousands of Marine's gunning exclusively for him. And so Ace sat there with Holly in his lap while his brothers and sisters died- while they screamed, fought, and struggled- and he was just sitting here.

His hands shook as a request to his brother threatened to cross his lips. As he honestly desired to call for Luffy to watch over Holly, to allow Ace to fight- to earn the loyalty his family and crew was actually giving him-

If Holly was conscious, she would have told him to fight, leave her there, and do what he needed to do. He was confident of that. She would understand his need to join the battle even at the risk of his own life- but she wasn't conscious- she wasn't, and it was his fault. Holly had struggled through worlds, the forces of Impel down, and Akainu beyond the brink of exhaustion to save him. He knew it because Holly had told him she'd never splinched herself before and that she had was a clear sign of how bad she actually was. Not to mention Luffy told him - while avoiding speaking of his own experience within Impel down - that she'd already dropped once on their way to Marineford when Ace pressed him for details about Impel Down.

All that they'd done for him just like his crew. They were doing all this for him-

Ace wasn't sure he could mentally handle that-

"Pops!"

Ace clenched his hand and smothered out Holly's hair, forced himself into that slow action as Luffy let one of their allies through. Ace felt relief when he spotted Squard. The man was a friend, had been for a year by then. He was relieved to see his brother safe.

"The allies have been hit hard," Squard told his father while his gaze slipped toward Ace and Ace- he flinched back.

There was an expression Ace was used to as a child, one he'd seen countless times in his past.

_"What if Gold Roger had a son?"_

He'd never see it on his crew's face, though only Marco and Pops had ever known who's blood Ace shared. But that look, that sharp hatred was hidden beneath Squard's eyes now- and just like that, Ace felt faint. He'd been honored, relieved- because though the Marines announced who Ace's parents were to the public at large, the Whitebeards' hadn't stopped trying to rescue him. They'd fought on regardless. Ace had stupidly believed that they didn't actually care-

He was wrong.

"I'll fight too," Whitebeard said eyes on the field, he'd join the fray- Pops hadn't seen the expression in Squard's eyes-

"I see, we owe you a great debt-" That expression- that expression- please Squard- "we'll give our lives for the great Whitebeard pirate crew."

Luffy paused sensing Ace's distress, Holly stirred slightly and pushed against the rest she so badly needed and-

Squard turned and plunged his sword into Whitebeard's stomach.

"P-" Ace choked on his call, he couldn't believe- he expected Squard to attack him, why had he- why- Squard wrenched the weapon free, and blood started to seep out in great gushes- something lethal had been struck. Whitebeard winced unable to help his expression, his hand went to press against the injury, and he dropped to a knee.

"SQUARD!" Marco appeared like a bullet. He crashed into Squard pinning the man in an instant, Luffy was a bare step behind to add his hands to grab the traitor-

Ace made an aborted motion to stand, but Holly's stable weight on his thighs stopped him- Marco told him she couldn't move. She'd die if she moved- she'd die- he had to- but Squard-

"HOW COULD YOU DO THAT?" Marco's demand was echoed by a furious Luffy when Squard slashed out with a hidden sword. Marco was the only thing that prevented Luffy from losing his head from the haki-coated weapon. Marco grabbed Luffy and pulled them both away. At the same time, all Ace could think was that Squard had actually used haki against Marco- and then Squard began to spew absolute venom from his lips.

Every word was a direct cut to Ace's heart.

"You know how much I hate Roger-" Ace knew but- he wasn't-

"You were just guiding him to become the next pirate king-" Ace didn't want to become king- that was going to be Luffy-

"Your precious little Ace was captured-"

Roger. It was Roger again. Everything kept coming back to that man, time and time again. Ace's very life didn't matter, all that mattered was Roger. Ace's actions as a pirate was second to Roger's blood. His choices made no difference, because of Roger-

"You sold us out to the Marines just to save Ace-"

"That's a lie!" Luffy interrupted harshly, "don't you say that about old-man beard!"

"You fool! You were tricked! How could you believe such filth-" Marco agreed looking incredibly odd next to Luffy, the two standing side-by-side in pure agreement.

Some distance away, Sengoku yelled for Aokiji, and a surge of ice froze Buggy and his prisoners solid. But the den-den mushi miraculously avoided the blow as it floated in the hands of a long-dead spirit who was quick to point the footage toward what Whitebeard would say next. Rouge, was not letting the Marines skew this further. Rouge was perfect with her timing as well, as Whitebeard dropped to a knee and embraced the man who'd been tricked before the eyes of everyone present.

Closer than Rouge, Lily collapsed to the ground, screaming. She pinned both Sirius and one the division commanders for the Whitebeard pirates. Her screams took on an unholy pitch as Akainu slipped away and slowly raised his arms toward the sky.

Ace watched on as his father embraced Squard, forgave him, corrected him. But he couldn't acknowledge that, because everyone was dying because of him. No, not even him. They were dying because of Roger-

Whitebeard suddenly tossed out an arm and cracked his fist into the air. Gravity itself surged, and the fruit that made Whitebeard famous rose to life. The waves frozen by Aokiji shattered with a single blow, and the world twisted. Ace's fingers blackened immediately as he thrust them into the wooden deck of the Moby Dick with an apology. He steadied himself, and Holly as Whitebeard hurtled himself into the battle enraged by what the Marines had done to twist one of his sons.

Ace knew what would happen next. He steadied himself carefully and called out to Luffy, who stood at Marco's side still: "brace yourself, Luffy!"

"Eh?"

And then Whitebeard unleashed his full power. The ocean shifted, it twisted, and it heaved. The world split, the sea itself was rent into pieces as the plates of land beneath then were pulled and pushed and manipulated by Whitebeard's will. Anyone unprepared was sent flying. Luffy was casually caught by Marco, who stared down Squard in fierce judgment. Ace remained still even as Holly slid slightly in her unconscious state.

When the world finally calmed, it was only for a moment.

From the sky, molten rock began to fall as Akainu pushed his counter-attack. The enormous pieces of magma hit the ice, but those that did were considered 'missed.' Akainu was not aiming at the ice, he was aiming at the ships, at their single method of escape. Three ships identical in most ways, three versions of the Moby Dick had been brought to the battlefield. Three ships carried the Whitebeard pirates to this war. And three ships sunk into the seas.

Ace swore and released his grip on the deck as one of the magma rocks fell right toward them. He scooped his hands under Holly's knees and back and prepared to dodge.

"Ace!" Marco snatched hold of Luffy and Squard and took to the air, "she can't fall in the water!"

"Don't have to tell me twice!" Ace yelled back gunning for the railing, his bare feet hit the deck, and he shoved off just as the rock struck the mast. It plunged an unfixable hole in the middle of the Moby-dick and took the keel and half the deck out in one brutal shot. Ace swore as he hit the ice, trying his best to absorb the blow with his knees to it didn't jar Holly's wounds open. Then, he ran. Ace was a devil-fruit user, and the ice, due to Akainu, was quickly running out. If he fell into the water, he was as good as dead.

Near instantly, he was forced to the dodge to the side as a Marine in the same spot stabbed out. Ace sneered at the man aware that he couldn't let himself be touched, not with Holly limp in his grip.

Darting back, Ace took stock of the situation. They'd lost their escape route, and he was quickly running out of ground. Dozens of his crew and allies had been dropped into the boiling water. And not only his allies but Marines as well were swimming for it. Ace cut to the side as more magma fell from the sky, trying to keep his footing. He darted backward, away from the plaza with Holly and the walls as Marines attacked him from every angle. He paused only to fall to a knee and wrench one of his crew from the water as they struggled to climb onto the ice.

Ace jumped from platform to platform, blindly aiming for their allied ships. With the Moby Dick out of commission, their best bet was to escape collectively with the allied ships.

"Fall back!" Ace yelled, reclaiming his title as the second division commander, "to the allied ships! Fall back!"

His men and crew were quick to respond, they worked together to escape the water. Some beat red like lobsters or brutally burned from the boiling liquid, but mostly alive.

"Ace-taicho!" one of the men nearest him yelled as those nearby flanked to him. They took his direction immediately. Moved toward the closest division commander they could see, and for those around him, that was Ace. "What do we do?"

"Help devil-fruit users out of the sea," he snapped out, repositioning Holly in his arms to give himself a free hand. He had to be able to defend himself. In the chaos, Ace was hard to locate, but any Marine that spotted him would be gunning for him directly. "Move toward the allied ships, we're retreating."

"Yes sir-" the man who spoke suddenly dropped. He did it without warning, he hadn't been attacked… he'd just dropped. Alarmed Ace skidded to a stop as the woman nearest to that man rushed to help him, and she too collapsed. Her eyes rolled back, her hands made an aborted motion toward her ears, and- she dropped.

"Halt!" Ace cried, searching hurriedly for the enemy, "do not approach physically! Pull them back without approaching!"

One of his sisters hurled her weapon, a grappling hook sort of device, at the pair. She shot their legs, and she pulled them away. A nearby medic rushed to their aid.

"Report," Ace called, still looking, "poison?" had Magellan gotten out of Impel Down? No, it shouldn't be possible to follow that quickly, and Ace didn't see the tell-tale sign of his distinctively purple ability.

"No, they're… it's not poison, their ear-drums exploded."

Ear-drums? Ace tilted his head and closed his eyes and… yes, there was something. A screaming? What was that?

"Ace!" Izo skidded to a stop beside him, his brother had a gaze across his forehead and the blood falling freely down his face was blinding one of his eyes. Izo didn't let it bother him though, and his aim had not suffered in the slightest as he stopped a Marine trying to approach. "Why are you halted here?"

"Do you hear that?" Ace asked, scanning the remaining ice, where was it?

Izo tilted his head listening as Ace had, then he nodded, yes he did hear it. "Is that… screaming?" Izo and Ace looked out and saw at the distance what looked like a small tornado of energy. Energy that glittered unnaturally and at the eye of it… red hair floating against gravity, an open mouth, and sightless green eyes.

"That's…" Ace had seen her before, it was Holly's mother- "Lily."

His arm gave a throb, and he shot a worried look at Holly. That was her mother, a dead woman, and she was- shit.

"I see her," Izo lifted one of his guns, "Shall I?" Does he shoot? Does he?

Ace shook his head, "Won't make a difference, she's already dead." They'd have to go around, there was nothing he could do about Lily like this. Not without Holly's help and advice, because Ace should not be seeing that woman. Lily was supposed to be dead, she wasn't supposed to be visible to him, let alone Izo. And as badly as he wanted to help her, the corpses of his crew were damning. He doubted Lily had any control in what she was doing. "We have to go around."

"That's a long way," and a lot of people to fight through. To the left, Aokiji was gunning toward them. To the right was Kizaru fighting with Marco, with Luffy assisting if you could call it that. Akainu was nowhere to be seen, which made Ace paranoid. The Admiral's were all a threat, but that man was the worst of them.

"If we go straight, we're dead."

Izo clicked his teeth, "around it is."

They turned together wary of the boundary around Lily. If they passed it, they were screwed. They moved carefully, Izo defending them while Ace had his hands full with Holly's limp body. He did have to shift her slightly when one man got a bit too close for comfort- and his fingers brushed against the ring he'd never noticed on her finger before.

A voice filtered in as he shifted: "-ch the ring, to-" and it faded away.

Ace paused and shot a look around him. He was beginning to get painfully used to hearing voices after Lily, but that one was unmistakably male. He looked around but saw no see-through figure as he had with Lily… had he imagined the voice? He shifted Holly again and followed behind Izo. The voice hadn't been clear regardless, it had just mentioned a ring? That was terribly random. Why a ring?

Ring?

"Ace come on!" Izo snapped as his guns went off. A vice-admiral was getting close, which reminded Ace that he hadn't seen Garp since Holly apparated him to the Moby Dick. Where was he? "what are you thinking?"

About a ring, not that Ace was going to admit that. It would make him sound like some love-lost puppy in the middle of a battlefield. Especially since he had no idea where to begin explaining the voices he was hearing after- wait Holly's ring? Was that it? He looked at Holly's hand and the ring she'd not been wearing before. On a whim, he reached for it- the moment his hand made contact, a figure appeared.

"Touch the ring- touch the bloody ring Ace I swear to-" the man was a scruffy mess of brown hair that reached his ears. His eyes were a hazel color and unfamiliar, but the shape of his nose and the absolute disaster his hair was… that Ace recognized him on sight. This was Holly's father. He'd seen the man's picture in the tent. He'd been photographed with Lily, the pair of them endlessly dancing in a courtyard. Though the man before him looked vastly more healthy and far more see-through than Lily. "Thank Merlin! Ace! Don't stop touching the ring! Better yet, wear it! Right now."

"What?"

"Ace!" Izo called as he caught Ace speaking to actual air, had his brother completely lost it?

"It's a deathly hallow, no, I don't have time to explain that, just trust me! Put it on! I can help!"

"ACE!"

"GIMME A MINUTE!" he yelled at Izo as he knelt so he could use his hand to pull the ring from Holly's finger. A dead man was ordering him around. Why did this shit keep happening? He blamed Holly, there was something insane about her life, and it was spreading to him. Then again, Luffy did basically the same thing, so Ace wasn't actually upset about it. It was just a part of life with the family he'd chosen. Ace shoved the ring, which should not have fit his finger, on and straightened. "There, happy?!"

"Who the hell are you talking to?" Izo demanded.

"Yes."

"A dead guy," Ace made a face, "it's a long story! Just, let's move."

Izo turned to lead the way as they moved on. They picked their way through the remaining ice gaining more of the crew on their way. They frequently stopped as Ace, the main target of the war, was attacked again and again by Marines. Multiple Vice-admiral's caught them, but they were quickly distracted by the crew utterly determined to protect Ace. And, as they moved, a dead guy rushed to speak. Ace listened with half an ear as they rushed to the allied ships.

"Don't call me a- oh screw it! Okay! Sirius is trapped with Lily, and we can't get her to listen to us." Holly's father shot a look at her knelt, screaming figure in the distance, "I don't… we don't know what to do to stop her."

"That's not something I can help with right now, I have to get Holly and my crew out of here." What was the guys' damned name? Ace couldn't remember it. He swore Holly had told him, but he was blanking.

"It's a problem! Akainu led her there, and that guy is gunning for you, Ace! If he catches up he's going to-"

"Yeah yeah, eviscerate me, end my line, yada yada Marine nonsense, I get it, serious consequences and all that." James! That was it! "I thought you were going to help!"

Izo's expression pinched, trying to follow the one-sided conversation. Nearby one of their allied cried out a warning. Ace and Izo followed the noise as they jumped from one ice platform to the next. They were quickly running out of 'land' to walk on. The boiling water was taking out the ice at a pace faster than Ace could run. On the upside, if they ran out, Izo would be fine, but Ace, like all other devil-fruit eaters, would be screwed.

So it was to his relief when a fourth unknown ship revealed itself. A fifth Moby-dick, a paddle version, had been hidden beneath the ocean's surface. Squard, in a bid to redeem himself, had brought it up, giving them another method of escape. On the downside, Ace couldn't reach the ship, not with the boiling ocean surrounding it. Not with how far away it was.

"I am!" James snapped, "just listen! Akainu is coming-"

Izo's hand abruptly slammed down on Ace's head, forcing him to duck. A moment later, a molten fist swung over his head. Ace crashed to the ground twisting at the last second to prevent himself from crushing Holly, but his grip on her faltered. He dropped her, and Holly was sent rolling limp until she stopped dangerously close to the water's edge. Ace, meanwhile, was forced to leave her there as Akainu had finally arrived. The man's attention was solely for Ace, Izo, and the rest of the crew was inconsequential. So long as Akainu finally got to destroy the line Gol D. Roger had left behind.

"Devil spawn." The man sneered.

Ace pushed to his feet, putting his back to Holly and his enemy at his front. His gaze flicked to Izo, who had been knocked brutally to the side by a follow-up attack. Izo's clothes and leg were badly burned, but thankfully the crew running with them were already moving to aid him. They, however, would be unable to reach Holly. Not with the rather small amount of ice left to walk on around him. Ace, in fact, didn't know if he'd be able to dodge, he'd likely fall in the water or… or Akainu's attacks would strike Holly.

Letting none of his concerns show on his face, Ace stared down the Admiral.

This was not good.

* * *

Luffy struggled back to his feet with Jimbe at his side. His whole body was shaking from exertion, and Luffy couldn't catch a breath to save his life. At least he was still alive thanks to his friends. Not minutes before Admiral Kizaru had struck the big diamond guy and Luffy into the ocean when the diamond guy had gotten distracted over Whitebeard's newest injury. Jimbe had pulled them both from the sea before joining them to defend Whitebeard's back.

Fists up, Luffy tried to focus on what was happening, but his body was becoming dangerously… fuzzy. Every motion he attempted to make was slow, seconds behind his decision to move. Every step, every beat down Marine was a challenge, and their numbers seemed endless. No matter how much Luffy struck down, three more replaced them. All the while, their escape route only seemed farther and farther away- and it was, the Marines were herding them away from the paddle ship.

-a hand grabbed his shoulder and shoved him to the side. Luffy gasped as Marco cried out, two beams of light exploded through his chest as the man's back arced. Then, his chest burst into bright blue flames, the wounds healing instantly, and Marco spun on the spot snarling. His feet came up and cracked against Kizaru's legs, the contact between them sparked before they were both thrown back by the force of it.

"Are you okay, Mango?" Luffy asked, following Marco into the fray. Luffy watched his question register, then… Marco turned toward him utterly infuriated with near shark teeth and yelled.

"It's Marco!"

Oh good, he was fine then. Luffy grinned happily, "thanks for the save, Marpo!"

"I just said-!"

The two of them both dodged as Kizaru recovered enough to charge them. Luffy dodged back, his feet kicked out as he back-peddled, and he ducked a Marine sword that swung for his head. The very same Marine was then hit in the back of the head, and the man turned into stone. Boa had found them, but Luffy didn't have the time to thank her as Marco and Kizaru's battle grew close to him once more.

Little did Luffy know how close Boa had been too entirely annihilating, not him, but Holly. She'd seen the little girl clinging to her beloved. The rage she'd felt had frozen half the marines around her until Boa realized Holly wasn't actually involved with Luffy. No, she was engaged to Ace! Which meant the girl was actually going to be Boa's sister-in-law, which was obviously perfectly fine. Boa would enjoy having another sister.

Luffy inhaled deeply to bounce a few canons off his stomach and shot a look at the Bay. He couldn't see much of it. Not with the Moby-dick was still burning as it sank. The black smoke was obscuring his sight of the east side of the Bay. That meant Luffy couldn't see Ace, who'd gone that way with Holly to escape the attack. Luffy wasn't too worried though, not really, Ace could handle himself. He was strong, and Holly had even unlocked Ace's sea-stone.

Ace would be fine.

"Stop day-dreaming Straw-hat!" One of Ace's Nakama grabbed him; the woman pulled him out of an attack from Mihawk, and Boa gave an enraged shriek. The attack nearly severed his hands, and Luffy rushed to remember his own situation. He had to fight to escape now. He couldn't get distracted.

Luffy kicked a nearby Marine aiming their gun at one of Ace's Nakama and twisted his body to the side as a few spare shots struck his chest. With a smirk, Luffy bounced them back unconcerned, bullets didn't affect him after all. Then landing lightly on his feet, Luffy joined the ground retreating toward the nearby paddle ship. It was getting more challenging to approach it. The Marines at large seemed to be concentrating on them, no, on Whitebeard. These people had already given dozens of lives for this battle, now they were powered by sheer desperation not to make it pointless. They seemed utterly determined to have at least one victory in this war, and if it was Whitebeard's life, then it was worth it. It made the Marines dangerous, more dangerous when they'd just been defending Ace.

Several cannonballs struck the paddle ship, and Luffy winced. He knew that throw. Garp was attacking their escape route, and it would take someone of equal strength to prevent it. Squard and his crew were simply not going to be enough to manage it. Though, Luffy was happy enough that Garp wasn't focused on him or Ace. Years of torture- err training- taught Luffy to be well afraid of that man.

Turning away, Luffy hoped Ace had better luck getting away and refocused on the battle.

Where had Marco gone?

Luffy took stock of his surroundings, ducked a sword aiming for his head, punched a gunner… oops, that was a bit too low even for a Marine, "sorry!" he apologized as the man foamed at the mouth and dropped holding his crotch. "That was an accident!"

There Marco was- Ace's Nakama was… Luffy felt his eyes grow a bit wide to see Marco on the ground. On the doctor's wrist was a chain- sea-stone- and Kizaure was standing over him. It reminded Luffy painfully of Zoro in the same position not, gods how long ago had that even been? But this time, there was no Rayleigh to save Marco, in fact, no one seemed able to assist. No one but Luffy. Picturing Zoro and Marco in the same position, Luffy felt that energy at the edge of his mind finally burst free.

"Don't!" Luffy screamed, feeling energy surge upward as he did. Marco-Zoro-Marco-Zoro was Ace's-his Nakama! Luffy didn't want him to die- energy exploded, but Luffy scarcely noticed it. Not when Kizaru's attention snapped to him. Not as Luffy rushed forward and grabbed Ace's Nakama before fleeing.

He couldn't handle Kizaru; Luffy knew that, so instead, he'd find the key and free Marco.

"Was that-"

"It can't be-"

"Conquerers?!-"

"Haki…"

Luffy tossed Marco over his shoulders, "don't worry Mallo, I'll find Holly! She'll get you free!"

Marco smacked his head, "that's not even close to my name!" his teeth grit as he said it, he couldn't believe he was so sloppy as to allow a vice-admiral to catch him with sea-stone. That was his mistake, he'd gotten distracted by his father. Whitebeard was taking too much damage. None of them could stop it happening either. Vista, Jozu, and Haruta were all guarding their fathers back, yet injury after injury seemed to strike their father.

The truth of it was-

Marco didn't want to think it, he didn't want to… but the thought kept rising to the front of his mind. "Put me down, Straw-hat! I'm fine!"

The truth of it was that Edward Newgate was not going to escape this battle. Marco knew it, he'd known it from the moment the Marines announced their plan to publicly execute Ace. The marines wanted a war with the Whitebeard's, and their father had given them one. To save Ace yes, but also so that he didn't die in a sickbed too weak to move. Because that was where Whitebeard was headed. Marco was his doctor, he knew what his father could handle. Knew that his body was giving out slowly. One year, two years, Whitebeard didn't have long and…

_"I'll choose my own death Marco, that is what Roger did, what any free man of the sea does… I chose this, remember that."_

His father wanted to die defending his family. He wanted to die saving his children, and there was absolutely nothing Marco could do about it.

Luffy put him down, and one of his brothers rushed over to pick the lock. Luffy, and by extension, Ivankov and Jimbe stayed at his side during this. They defended him when they should be escaping, or defending Ace at the very least. Marco forced himself still as he watched his father take another shot to the chest. The man wasn't even dodging anymore; he was- Marco grit his teeth waiting for the sea-stone to fall away. Could he fix that damage? Marco wasn't sure anymore, yes his father was still moving, but any one of those wounds could be lethal without his knowledge.

Perhaps it was good that Ace had escaped to the opposite sit. If Ace knew what their father intended in this fight, then Ace would never recover. Just as he wouldn't when it did happen… gods Marco hoped it didn't happen.

The sea-stone shackled dropped off his wrist, and Marco's arm, chest, and head burst into flames to heal the damage he'd taken. He stood as the flames did their work.

He was the first-division commander, he had a job to do. He had no time to let himself be defeated by something as stupid as sea-stone and an admiral. He looked to the paddle-ship, Blamenco had made his way to its deck and was furiously defending it. Good, his fellow division commanders were playing their parts well. Things were going smoothly enough for their escape. Now as long as they could keep the ship from sinking and their father from taking any more injuries-

"ACE!"

A chilling scream that Marco recognized as Izo's hit the air. He, and just about everyone else that heard it, looked to the opposite side of the bay. Something had happened. Something that would change the tide of the battle as Edward Newgate couldn't help but look, worried for his sons. While the Marines brutally pressed their advantage.

* * *

_'Holly Potter.'_

She knew that voice.

_'WAKE UP'_

It was that stupid Roger.

_'Get up girl!'_

Why couldn't he let her sleep? Hadn't she earned that? Apparently not. After she answered his bloody call, she was going to sleep a week and no one dead was going to stop that. Groaning softly, Holly cracked open her eyes, then immediately furrowed her brows. This time she remembered well where she'd fallen asleep, it had been half in Ace's lap on his ship. So why was she staring at bubbling water with ice under her body?

Blinking, the sight didn't vanish, so Holly forced her arm under her and pushed herself up. Her head was foggy; it felt like she'd gone ten rounds with a dragon or something equally dangerous. Struggling to a seated position, Holly felt her side tug as her motions pulled at the stitches; likewise, her leg was throbbing. Holly's entire body was protesting any motion. That didn't stop her though, she'd probably gotten up and about with worse… maybe?

Pressing a hand to her eye to stave off the growing migraine, Holly looked around. There was a ship burning in the Bay itself, nearby marines and pirates alike were splayed out on the ground, and directly behind her… was Ace. Holly went her eyes widen, and the world shrank to a single point. Ace stood between her and a man who's left side was made of pure magma. One of Ace's arms was hanging limp at his side. Holly could almost hear it as great globs of blood dropped to the ice under Ace. Just as she could smell the scent of burning flesh that she knew wasn't coming from her, it came from Ace.

As Ace shifted, she realized a large portion of his right arm was charred, and the broken skin was leaking blood all over the place. Moving slightly, Holly caught a flash of Ace's gaze. He was checking her location, and she saw an unmistakable relief when he realized she was conscious. How- how long had he been fighting while she'd been out? What had even happened?!

Holly pushed to her feet, ignoring her stitches pulling and some ripping. Stood and put all her weight on her injured leg while shoving aside how badly it screamed as she dared. Holly watched Ace turn back toward the Marine before him and reached for her wand still hidden in its holster attached to her right arm. Exhaling a shaking breath- Holly felt like she was going to cry- everything was too much. Holly was beyond exhausted, she was the most drained she'd ever been, and Ace was hurt. Holly felt her face heating- she was just so tired- but that Marine-

Ace punched out, and Akainu's hand snatched hold of his neck. Someone screamed Ace's name while his arms, injured and not, reached up to grab the hand. The Marine pulled Ace off the ground, forced him to dangle as Ace furiously beat at the arm gripping him. And then, slowly, the Marine's arm started to transform from his shoulder down to his hand… into magma. He intended to burn Ace alive-

_"Watch out for Akainu," Roger urged Holly as she tensed up in his grip, "don't let that man anywhere near Ace if you want him to live. Fate is a stingy bitch, and that man will stop at nothing to end my line. Never let him close."_

Something snapped.

Holly knew who that Marine was. She knew why he was here, and she knew why Roger had forced her awake. Holly gripped her wand, felt the wood under her palm, the groves of the elder wand- Holly hadn't even intended to grab that particular wand- then she moved. Holly rounded Ace and Akainu to get a proper shot at the man. She stopped as the magma reached Akainu's elbow. In position, Holly's wounded leg slipped forward, it screamed as she put weight on it. Holly's non-dominate hand moved backward, balancing her. She took the duelers stance she'd stolen from Voldemort years ago.

Then, she cast a spell she'd never dared to before.

"Avada Kedavra!"

Holly did not want to kill people, she had never possessed a single inkling to use that curse. Then again, she'd once thought the same about crucio and imperio. How funny, that Holly had never thought to use this spell on Voldemort. Maybe because she'd sympathized with him, especially after learning his past. Perhaps because she wasn't defending herself but Ace. Maybe because of Roger's desperate warning. Regardless the spell left her wand before she even truly realized what she'd cast. It sped through the air, and- Akainu's body twisted. Her sickly green spell went straight through a hole in his body. He'd dodged it.

Akainu's gaze shifted to her despite Ace being in his grip. Fear twisted inside Holly. Fear of this man and concern for what he'd do to Ace if she didn't get Ace back now.

Fear. Fear and courage came hand in hand, and she was a- "I'm a bloody Gryffindor!" She screeched, flicking her wand. Holly didn't even put a name to the magic she hurtled at the Marine. She threw anything and everything at him, from tickling spells to the full-on crucio. Holly cast everything at the man who's body filled with holes, so every one of her spells missed. Holly's casting grew more frantic as Ace's struggled slowed, as Akainu stared her down, almost bored with her attempts.

"H-hol-" Ace choked. Eyes on her, he gave one last-ditch attempt, and his hands blackened. He abandoned his efforts to use his flames, they weren't working. Reaching up, Ace swung back, and put every ouch of strength he could at Akainu's magma elbow. It blew out the arm. Ace felt his skin burn, and it was excruciating, but he was free. Landing on his feet, Ace staggered, his vision was spotting from the lack of air- where was Akainu? He needed to put distance- Ace fell to his knees.

"Accio!" Holly cast taking immediate advantage of Ace's attempts. Akainu, already thinking he could outspeed her other attacks, didn't try to block her. Thankfully for her as she caught Ace's belt and wrenched it, and by extension him, toward her. Ace slid across the ice until he stopped at her feet. Holly didn't dare look at him, not as Akainu turned a furious look at them both.

She was afraid. This man terrified her. Even Voldemort had tried to block her, even he'd struggled against her magic, but this man… never had Holly faced someone with such overwhelming strength before. She was… she was afraid. But Holly hadn't lost herself yet.

"Protego!"

Akainu dodged all attacks, so she needed a new tactic. She needed to defend. Holly swiftly layered spells over, she used the ones Hermione had taught her to protect their camp exclusive on Ace's and her body. A shine glittered around them both unseen by Muggle's eyes. Akainu foolishly let her do it, confident he could handle her easily. She'd take advantage of that.

As she worked, Ace forced himself up, he staggered to his feet. His body heaved with each breath, he shook from exertion, from days of starvation and dehydration. He panted through the pain; then, he stepped forward and put himself once more between Akainu and Holly. He listened to the spells she was weaving at a furious weight and recognized nearly all of them. Ace had seen her cast those spells dozens of times in another context, so he had a decent idea of what she was doing.

"Running away the moment you grabbed Ace, what a bunch of coward pirates." Akainu drawled. Nearly arm to arm, Holly felt Ace tense up and quickly moved her free hand to take his. She knew well how a few well-placed words could affect something, words had resulted in Sirius' death. She wouldn't let them be the death of Ace as well. Thankfully for her and for Ace, he squeezed her hand back, forcing himself to relax. "The captain as well, it can't be helped. Whitebeard is after-all just a failure from the previous era."

They stood off against Akainu, the one man Roger had warned her about.

Ace's teeth ground together, and Holly cut off her casting to grab him. "Bold words from a man who let a civilian steal your prisoner out of your very grip." She staggered, shit, her magic- Ace's swapped his hold, so he had his hand on her arm, steadying her. They held each other up, and Holly continued on: "I mean, I'm basically nothing but a glorified teleporter," Oh yes, she knew what they thought she could do, "and yet you lost your arm to me." Though he'd regrown it apparently, "how's that feel?"

He was unaffected, Holly wasn't surprised. Her best attempt at trash talk involved nonsense of the quidditch pitch, and the twins always face-palmed to her tries. Really though, trash-talking wasn't her aim. Holly's goal was to distract Ace from his anger, and from the entirely amused look on his face, she'd succeeded.

"That was bad." He whispered, and Holly shrugged. Ace shot her a fond look before realizing how much effort she was putting into just standing, "Alright, Holly?"

"I've'… been better… you?"

Ace allowed himself to grin while keeping an eye on Akainu. The man was growing more enraged by their casual conversation than Holly's 'trash-talk.' "I could use a vacation, somewhere cold."

"Hah, I thought you hate the cold." Holly brandished her wand as black raced up Ace's hands. Both of them preparing for the next attack. For Ace, well, Akainu had already taunted him for his lack of haki, he'd claimed Ace relied too much on his devil-fruit, and the worst part of that was, the man was right. Ace had gone months without his fire, and he'd immediately leaned back on it once Holly freed him from the sea-stone shackles.

Well, he wouldn't be making that mistake again.

"I got used to it," Ace told her, and he was honest. Holly's world was a chilly one, and it had been in the middle of the winter when he'd arrived. That and he was literally covered in burns at the moment, it made it easy to crave something cold. "I know a winter island we could have some with-" Ace cut off as Akainu charged.

Ace was prepared. He moved to throw his haki coated fist forward. But as Holly went to do the same, she put her weight on the wrong leg- and her leg collapsed out from underneath her. Still holding onto Ace, he was pulled off course with her weight. He'd miss- and with the direction, then Akainu would hit Holly- Ace was given an instant to decide. A moment he didn't need.

Ace twisted, grabbing Holly to put his back to Akainu.

He choose Holly.

"Ace! Holly!"

She wasn't sure who screamed the word, not that it mattered as a molten fist raced toward them both. She'd never know for sure either. Not as a figure spawned over Akainu's head. Hair floating without gravity, eyes green and furious, face twisted in a protective sneer. Lily Evans' reached out with clawed hands- she moved fast, faster than Holly could imagine. One second she was there, and the next her hand was buried into Akainu's unprepared back right where his heart was.

Holly and Ace hit the ground at a roll. They scrambled when no blow struck, and looked back, still entangled, to where Akainu had been.

There, where they'd just been standing, was Akainu. His fist was frozen inches from where he would have stabbed Ace right through the middle. While in the center of Akainu's chest was a woman's clawed hand. As they watched, ice began to spread from Lily's touch. Not that it mattered. She'd gone straight through Akainu's heart. The man had died in an instant.

"Mom?" Holly breathed out.

Lily lifted her head; she braced her other hand on Akainu's shoulder, creating more ice lines as she attempted to pull her solid arm from the man's chest. It would have been a hilarious struggle to watch if Holly and Ace hadn't been frozen in sheer shock.

Holly's dead mother had just killed a Marine Admiral.

Lily turned her attention to Holly, and she beamed. "It's alright baby… I have you," She looked between them, soft and protective, "I have you both. Always."

"H-how… h-" Holly choked on the words as she felt Ace drop his head to her neck. His fingers clutched at her shirt.

"Forgot to mention that, James called her a banshee…"

"O-oh-" Holly watched her mother finally get her arm free and seemed to just relax. As if she hadn't killed dozens with her screams. As if Akainu's death had been her entire goal and now that she was done, she was just fine. Which made sense considering what Holly recalled from her Care class. Banshees… they were supposed to predict a family member's death, so maybe Lily had sensed Akainu killing Ace. Then had done everything she could to change that destiny. "I see."

"Holy shit." Someone breathed as Lily glanced around. She let him Akainu drop uncaring as she scanned the area for her next target. As she did, Holly breathed out. That close, they'd come that close to both dying. If not for Lily…

Ace exhaled on Holly's neck, causing her to jerk in surprise. Ace tugged her tighter and pulled Holly into his chest as if trying to create as much contact between them as possible. Ace's actions were downright desperate, and his hands were shaking. Holly allowed herself to relax, felt her eyes grow utterly fond as she wrapped her own arms tightly around his shoulders and back. She rubbed his shoulder blades lightly and heard him start to mumble something into the skin at her neck. Holly couldn't make out the words, but she believed she understood the sentiment. It was likely an echo of her own thoughts, they had been close, stupidly close to both dying half a dozen times over the past few days. Ace had just been a breath away from having Holly's corpse in his arms once more. Or Holly would have been the one in that position, and he- they needed to feel each other living bodies. So, Ace burrowed into her. Pressed his face to her shoulder. He reached up to touch his fingers to the pulse point at her neck.

"Holly," he was shaking.

Her pulse thumped steadily under his hands.

"I'm here," Holly soothed as moved reached her free hand up to cup the back of his head, her fingers splayed out in his hair. She wasn't much better than Ace was, she was shaking just as much as Ace was. Too close. That had been too close. "I'm still alive, we're still alive."

"We're not safe yet." Ace's crew-mate reminded them as the battle was raged in the distance at full force. The Marines and pirates alike had paused on their side of the Bay while Akainu, Ace, and Holly fought. But now that Akainu was dead, the Marines had tripled their efforts to reach Ace.

"I know," Ace choked out, "I know Izo." And named the man for Holly. "I just…"

"You have a moment," Izo offered, he lifted his weapons up and took a defensive position to guard them, just as Lily had, "I can guard you for that long."

"Thank you, Izo," Ace closed his eyes, trusted his brother to defend their back. And he breathed.

They were alive. For the moment… they were alive.


	13. Chapter 13

Izo stood silent and watchful at his brother's side. He gave Ace that needed moment to get his emotions back under control and allowed him to breathe. Izo knew it must be difficult for Ace to have his parentage so publicly displayed and for that to be the reason for this war. To almost lose his life and the life of someone so very close to him only moments before. Izo didn't judge his brother for taking a second, if it had been… well, Izo understood. He also hadn't missed the state Ace's body was in, his brother was not at his best, not by a long shot. Ace was covered in brutal wounds. He was bleeding sluggishly from old reopened wounds, and heavily from new ones. Ace was also thinner than the last time Izo had seen him, he'd been starved by the marines most likely. And the girl… Izo's gaze lingered at her leg. He recognized Marco's work even if many of the stitches had been ripped open in her desperate attempt to protect Ace.

They were both on their last leg, almost literally. Worse yet, Izo couldn't see an end to the war yet, not with how determined the Marines were to kill every last one of them.

Izo scanned the battlefield again as his nearby siblings picked themselves off the ground. They, just like Ace, Holly, and Izo, were covered in brutal burns. Izo's was on the back of his hands but were thankfully not as severe as what plagued Ace's arm. Izo's crew panted for breath, they fought to the death against the enraged Marines even with their bodies giving out. The Marines seemed almost in a trace of aggression. They were trying to reclaim Akainu's body and finish the job the man had started. Izo, close to the corpse, was highly tempted to kick the bastard into the ocean. The man didn't deserve the seas embrace as a final resting place… then again, in the sea, the man couldn't be turned into a martyr for the World government to mourn.

No. The magma bastard definitely didn't deserve that, so Izo took a step forward.

Before the eyes of the Marines nearby, Izo put his heel against Akainu's spine and kicked. The body skidded across the ice. Several people screamed out- and then Akainu vanished over the edge. Izo shot the Marines a taunting look before he turned back to his brother and newest sister. "We have to go." Izo said. Especially after pissing off the nearby Marines.

Ace exhaled as Izo said it. He felt the ground quake under their feet, their father was acting again, and none of them knew what was happening. Due to the smoke, they couldn't make out the other side of the bay at all. Nodding, Ace pulled from Holly's body feeling far more settled. He'd taken his moment; now, he needed to push everything aside and escape this damned place.

"Alright Holly?" he asked as he struggled to his feet. His body wasn't in great shape, but it was functional. His arm was a mess, it was hanging useless at his side, and Holly's leg was no better from its looks.

Chuckling at the situation, it was so bad it was funny, Ace offered Holly his uninjured arm and said: "Between the two of us we have six working limbs."

Holly clucked her tongue as she subtly swiped a hand across her cheeks. She allowed him to pull her gently to her feet, Ace's fingers were firm in her own, whole without haki coating them and Holly dearly wished she could enjoy that. It would have to be another time. On her feet, Holly carefully balanced on her uninjured side. She hopped a bit unwilling to put any pressure down and gripped Ace's arm tight to keep her balance. He didn't pull away to her relief, nor did he really drag any attention to the injury beyond a brief concerned look. Holly appreciated that even as she said: "I really should have learned more healing spells when I had the chance. Hermione tried to teach Ron and me… but I was more focused on defence against the dark arts." In her defence, she hadn't exactly expected a pirate soulmate to drop in her lap and do the fighting for her. Everything she'd ever been taught implied she'd have to defeat Voldemort personally in combat.

"Something to do in the future." Ace shrugged and scanned the area. Beside them, Izo hovered slightly, his eyes darting toward Holly's leg and Ace's arm, then around them and back. He was ready to support them in a moment's notice, especially with Holly balanced on one leg. Sure he didn't know her well, but the girl had saved Ace's life twice already, and he clearly cared quite profoundly for her, so Izo was willing to protect her as well.

"Yeah but," Holly's nose scrunched up, adorably Ace would like to say, "I'll have to figure it out from scratch, I didn't bring any books here."

"We'll figure it out," Ace watched Izo lift his gun and shoot a Marine off to the side who was getting dangerously close to them. The man dropped in a bloodied heap. Ace watched him fall passively while observing Holly in the corner of his eye. Her eyes were narrowed slightly, but she didn't give away what she was thinking. He didn't know what was going through her mind about this war. Holly wasn't a stranger to death, but… well, killing a death eater actively trying to kill her was different than killing a Marines. Or was it? Both had been trying to kill them.

Ace turned away as another dropped nearby from Izo's pinpoint aim. "Izo, can you see anything?"

"Nothing," he answered, "the Bay is completely obscured by the smoke. Our best bet is to likely reach the ally ships for our retreat and hope Pops meets us there."

Ace would normally accept that as a plan, it was sound enough for the options Izo knew they had. After all, Ace's flames couldn't break the smoke, and Izo's guns certainly couldn't. As a result, all Izo knew was continuing the retreat. But he didn't know what Holly could do. Ace gave her a sidelong glance, he raised his brows in question, and she tilted her head in thought. The two of them had a silent conversation causing Izo to scowl.

Holly's fingers flexed at her sides, fingertips dancing along her wand, and she said: "I may be able to blow the smoke aside to give us a look over there." Holly felt at her magic, it had replenished drastically from before, and she could theorize a reason. Ace's brother, who'd stitched her up, she'd caught his nickname from a nearby Marine. He was called Marco the phoenix; he wasn't the same colour as Fawkes by any means but, phoenix's had magic, and he'd used his healing flames to help her.

Somehow, Marco had managed to replenish her magic on top of healing her wound, and she suspected he had no idea that he'd done that. But it was the benefit of the Whitebeard's now.

"Do it." Ace told her gaze already on the thick black smoke.

Izo's brow lifted, then it shot up to his hairline before he glanced at the smoke as well. Could she really do that? What sort of devil-fruit did this girl actually have? He'd seen the light show she'd put off, witnessed one of those lights grab Ace and yank him toward her, and the teleporting? Going off all that, Izo suspected her devil-fruit actually involved space. It was likely she could teleport by folding space, dragging Ace with the same skill, and the lights… was she stealing other people's attacks? Or maybe it was a bizarre application of haki?

Holly exhaled and lifted her wand. She staggered slightly as she tried to take on a dueler stance- she'd put too much pressure on her leg- "Bugger-" Holly gasped as Ace and Izo reached forward. Ace and Izo caught her arms, braced her before she could fall after the mistake. Holly got them a thankful look even as she blushed in slight embarrassment.

"Do be careful little sister," Izo cautioned as Ace helped her back into a standing position. His words caused her and Ace to both redden, and Izo to smirk. Ah, so the relationship was new instead of a secret then, excellent. That meant he could officially start teasing them both, and they'd adequately react.

"I-I-I-" Holly sputtered.

"Izo- you-" Ace copied her, and Izo internally cackled. "Shut up!" Ace finally settled on, "go ahead Holly, just watch your leg."

"Y-yeah." She was still beat red and suddenly quite grateful that the twins never met Ace- ah, and they wouldn't would they. That was a sobering thought.

No, she didn't have time for that kind of thinking. Not yet. Shaking off the melancholy, Holly flicked her wand. Ace was supporting her weight with his free hand, so she didn't bother with a duelers stance. Instead, she cut a path with her wand, and a spell shot forth. It was a literal burst of air and a rather simple charm to learn. The spell was actually used as a lesson for first years due to how easy it was to cast. It was just affectively a puff of air… which Holly greatly overpowered to cut through the thick black smoke.

The spell hit the cloud and parted it in a rush. As it did, Izo and Ace leaned forward gaze intent on the opposite of the bay. There they could make out several of their siblings; Jozu's glittering body, Marco in full avian form circling overhead while in battle with Kizaru, Luffy's stretching fists clashing with a group of Marines, and their father. Edward Newgate turned their way as Holly's spell gave both sides a chance to view the other. His eyes landed on Holly, Ace, and Izo standing together, and the relief there couldn't be disguised. But where Whitebeard was relieved, Ace and Izo quickly grew horrified. Their father was covered in brutal bloodied wounds, giant gaping holes, massive cuts, countless bruises... he was… he was dying.

"Pops!" Ace exhaled, unable to believe how bad his father's injuries had gotten in such a short time.

Whitebeard suddenly turned away, determination in his posture. It mirrored James, invisible to all but Ace as he stood behind his daughter and the kid he already saw as a son. James hissed out a breath as he spotted the figure behind Whitebeard; it hovered over the man's shoulder as he fought for his children. It's form invisible to all but the dead. It's touching edging closer and closer to Whitebeard's flagging body.

"Bugger," James muttered as Whitebeard stood firm and yelled to the battlefield. His voice reached every side of Marineford, from the allies to Ace, Holly, and Izo watching as the smoke started to cover their line of sight again.

"What I'm about to tell you is my final captain's order! Listen carefully Whitebeard pirates!"

"No no, no, no!" Ace took a staggering step forward as the smoke covered his father again. "No!" he darted forward blindly. This couldn't be- his father couldn't- this was all his fault-

"Shit-" Izo stashed his guns instantly and twisted on the spot. He gave Holly no warning as he put his arms at Holly's back and under her knees. Izo scooped her right off the ground and rushed after Ace already hurtling himself along the ice toward their father. Holly gave a sharp yelp of surprise before she grabbed Izo's neck and clung fast, trying to adjust to the sudden change.

"Izo?" she questioned tentatively. He sprinted after Ace, launched across the few remaining blocks of ice until they'd returned to the cobblestone of the bay. Ace flew past Marines and pirates alike. He cut down the enemies in his path and revealed just why he was the second division commander. Not even a vice-admiral could slow him. Izo carried Holly through the aftermath of it while dodging the few Marines Ace had left behind.

"Cover me," Izo told her, "watch for enemies-" He gasped when Holly twisted suddenly. She leaned up so she was almost chest to chest with him and suddenly rolled the 'stick' in her palms. Holly yelled something, an alien word to him, and a Marine dangerously close to his back dropped to the ground in a heap.

"Got it." She promised.

"Good."

"THIS IS WHERE YOU AND I SPLIT UP!" Whitebeard's voice echoed across the battlefield. Hearing it, Izo and Ace both put on a burst of speed, they were joined by other division commanders trapped on the opposite side of the bay with them. All of them were rushing for their father, and they were brutally cut down the Marines in their way. Holly, calmer than most, beyond the second-hand pain she was feeling for Ace, stunned anyone the commanders missed. She could do nothing else, nothing perhaps apparate. Still, she'd only do that with Ace, and he was too panicked, too devastated to remember she could now that she'd seen where Whitebeard was. "EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU, STAY ALIVE AT ALL COSTS. RETURN TO THE NEW WORLD IN ONE PIECE!"

Holly gasped as Whitebeard's yells reverberated in her chest. She felt it touch at her heart and felt her emotions surge. There was such raw emotion in his scream, such determination and love for his crew. It was no wonder Ace called this man his father, Holly honestly wouldn't have minded doing the same. After all, she already had two dead fathers what was one more- she winced at the turn of her thought. It seemed she was a bit too used to potential parent figures dying off on her.

Izo gave off a bit off swear as the world shook violently. He staggered, collapsed to a knee and pulled her close as an almighty crashing sound echoed around them. He curled up his body and dragged her form close, Izo protected her as Marineford itself shattered. The enormous Marine building shook as one of Whitebeard's punches rocked the island. Cracks formed all across the building, rubble was sent flying in every direction. Even at the opposite side of the bay, she, Ace, and Izo were hardly safe from them. Some were headed their way- Ace appeared from the left and snatched hold of Izo's clothing, he dragged them all in a roll just before an enormous rock struck where they'd just knelt.

They weren't given a moment to rest either, not as more rubble fell toward them. As it neared, Izo grabbed for his gun, and Ace lifted his hand. To shoot and blast them out of the way? Holly wasn't sure what their plan was, but her magic worked far better at protecting everyone around them than a gun did. "Izo, Ace, move- arresto momentum!" Her spell slowed the rocks in thin air, but it didn't stop their fall completely. Thankfully Ace was a quick thinker, he rushed to his feet and grabbed Izo and Holly both dragging them out of the rubbles path. Izo and Ace rolled to their feet as the spell cut off, and the rubble crashed back to the ground.

"Alright, Ace, Holly-san?" Izo asked them even as distant cries began to slip into their ears. Denials and pained pleading. The Whitebeard crew was urging their father not to go through with his plan, begging the man to return with them to the sea. As the three of them hear this, they also realized what Whitebeard had done with his latest attack. Edward Newgate had ripped Marineford in two. He'd separated the marines and the pirates' sides in one brutal blow, created a chasm farther than any could jump, and he'd left himself on the enemy side.

"Pops," Ace was balanced on one foot staring in horror. His father was sacrificing himself for them. But that distance- Ace could make it, so could Marco- but that order-

"He's going to sink Marineford. He's making them focus on him to protect-" Izo cut off realizing the end of that sentence would only make Ace hate himself. Because that was how Ace was. If he realized Whitebeard was doing this so the Marines stopped chasing Ace, then he'd never forgive himself.

"Did you not hear my order?" Whitebeard demanded of them, "Go now, idiots!" His desperate order was nearly ruined by the Marines taking advantage. It was almost ruined by the dozens of guns and cannon shots going off pointed at Whitebeard. Nearly ruined as Whitebeard didn't bother to dodge a single one. More and more wounds opened on his body- and an enormous plume of fire halted the attacks. Ace, in one move, dragged the attention of every single person on the battlefield. But for Ace and Whitebeard, there was only each other.

Ace lifted his chin, breathed deep, and dropped. He planted his palms flat on the ground, dropped his forehead to the floor and bowed before the man he called father.

"Ace," Holly exhaled, her heart was settled in her throat. Whitebeard was dying- he was dying- those wounds, she knew even with healing spells it was likely too late. Holly wanted to stop it desperately, wanted to prevent Ace from feeling that pain, that same pain she'd felt as Sirius fell backward through the veil after saving her.

Gods, they were much too similar.

"No need to speak," Whitebeard told Ace, "just answer me one question… am I a good father?"

"You are!" Ace screamed before slowly regaining and lifting his head. He forced himself to his feet with an expression Holly recognized from her past, the one she'd caught in the mirror after Sirius. Holly made a distressed noise in the back of her throat. She couldn't save Ace from this pain. She couldn't save Whitebeard any more then she'd saved Sirius.

And Ace forced himself to his feet. He forced himself to follow his father's last order to leave and survive. Ace turned his back on his father and rushed back toward Izo and Holly, toward his crew and family and- a ghostly hand reached for his shoulder. Ace flinched away, preparing for the freezing temperature of Lily's touch and instead came to eye to eye with a kind hazel gaze. "James," he breathed, stopping in his tracks.

"Ace," James moved for his shoulder again, this time Ace let him, he wasn't afraid of James' grip. Somehow, despite the man being unable to affect the world as Lily could, James seemed almost more alive. Perhaps that was because he was in more control than Lily was. His fingers ghosted near Ace's skin, it didn't connect, couldn't, but the intent was enough. James left his hand hovering there and struggled for a moment, his eyes seemed to water, but he was unable to honestly cry, not as a dead man.

Finally, he seemed to decide what words he wanted so badly to say. "It's alright, son… we have him."

Ace sucked in a sharp breath, his eyes immediately burned as he looked at Holly's father.

James Potter was dead, he'd been dead since Holly's birth. He'd been entirely out of this world for more than a decade, and he was still- James Potter was still protecting his daughter. James fought tooth and nail even in the afterlife to protect his little girl. He was part of the reason Holly and Ace were alive; he was one of the people who'd brought Ace and Holly together. And he was the reason Ace even had hope for the future.

James' words struck Ace differently. They echoed along with Marco's from that long ago.

_"-because he calls us his sons."_

"Thank you," Ace choked the words out as tears blurred his vision. That dark feeling in his chest was soothed in the knowledge that the dead would help his father. Ace may never see Whitebeard again, but… James had him. Edward Newgate would be fine and… and maybe it wouldn't be the end. Not with the ring…

James nodded, solemn and determined, "Now go, follow your captain's orders. Get yourself and Holly out of here."

Ace forced himself to move on, to pull away from the ghostly fingers at his shoulder and his father's warring form. Forced every step until he was back at Izo and Holly's side, and then together, they started to flee. The paddle ship was nearby, and thanks to their frantic sprint, so were most of the Whitebeard pirates. Ace's siblings weren't in the best shape, Jozu was half frozen and unresponsive. Marco was fixed in place, aware he could fly to his father's side but mentally warring against that thought because of the order he'd been given. Haruta had a large hole in his shoulder, and blood was running freely down his arm. At his side Blamenco was beating back the few Marines left on their side. Luffy, Ace was relieved to see, was with Jimbe's, and though flagging physically, was still standing.

It seemed even though Whitebeard had separated the Pirates and Marines, the Marines were still far from giving up. Kizaru and Aokiji continued to be a threat that few of them could physically handle right then. Sengoku meanwhile was already trying to salvage their losses by trying to end Whitebeard, who was just buying time by then. Then the other vice-admirals, including Ace's grandfather, were pushing back as far as they could even with the gaping hole between the two warring sides.

"Ace?" Izo called.

"Lets go," he demanded of his siblings, "follow our captain's orders."

Every step was like slogging through mud, like the weight of the world was pulling against him. It felt like Fate herself was tugging him down, trying to pull him to a stop. Ace clenched his uninjured fist as Izo backed off as well. He hated it- he hated it- he hated it-

Holly climbed to her feet and bit her lip as she stared at Whitebeard's form. He was fighting tooth and nail despite his children being unable to look away, despite his body giving in. He was growing slower and slower with each second, even as he wielded gravity in his very hands to expand the hole between his crew and the enemy. The tremors of the earth made it impossible for the Marines to keep their feet with any sort of ease, a problem not held on the pirate side.

"Straw-hat!"

Ace and Holly's head snapped around at the same moment. They caught sight of Kizaru's glittering form appearing over Luffy's downed body. Holly had no idea how Luffy had gotten in that position, no idea why Kizaru seemed so determined to end Luffy's life. But it didn't matter, not as Ace's leapt into motion to rush for his brother's side. At the distance though- he wouldn't make it. They were all too far from Luffy to do anything-

"Protego!" Holly gasped, she barely managed to speak the word in her rush. Her shield was more intent that a true cast, and she could only hope it was good enough. Magic was intent, and Holly's was blatant. She wanted Luffy safe, so safe that her spell was overpowered, and it glittered physically in the sun. While Holly's aborted step forward caused her to put too much pressure on her leg. She didn't make a single noise of pain, she would not allow her shield to drop and leave Luffy unprotected.

Kizaru, standing over Luffy, paused as he took in the shield. He glanced at Holly as Ace barreled toward him, as Jimbe tried to struggle back to his feet. Then- black spread down his leg. Holly grabbed her wand with both her hands as the haki coated limb pressed against her spell. It was like she was physically being struck, and oh- she'd so hoped no one would realize her weakness. Ace had already gotten through many shields with haki, but this was the first Marine to do the same.

"Luffy!"

Kizaru smiled, and a flash of light blinded them off. A second later, Ace crashed into Kizaru's side, sending the man skidding away from Luffy, but he was too late. Luffy's scream of agony crossed the battlefield and sent shivers down Holly's spine. It was still echoing when Holly hurled all caution to the wind and twisted on her burnt leg. She vanished from Izo's side with a crack. Then appeared beside Luffy and instantly reached down, pressing her palms to his chest where a brutal burn mark had cut across his skin. Blood pumped thick in-between her fingers and prevented her from seeing how deep the wound was. But Holly knew it wasn't good.

A crash sounded dangerously close to Holly's ear. She didn't have to look to know it was Ace blocking a blow from Kizaru, that it was Ace preventing her and Luffy from being hurt- "Holly! Get Luffy away from here!" She glanced to the side and caught Ace's gaze. His injured hand was still limp at his waist, but the other was coated in thick strands of haki. Beside him, Jimbe was also defending her and Luffy. But they couldn't do much with Luffy's injured body so close. They couldn't properly fight; she had to get him away- but in Circe's name, she didn't want to. Holly was terrified of losing Ace; he'd had far too many close calls- but… at the same time…

He'd trusted her to leave his side, to handle the Horcrux while he stalled Voldemort. He believed she'd save his brother.

"Don't you bloody die Ace!" she demanded. Holly lifted her head and scanned the farthest point she could- there, in the distance, she could get Luffy far from the Marines and hopefully do something about the wound. Holly gritted her teeth, ensured she had a proper grip on Luffy, and while kneeling in place- apparated.

It wasn't clean. It was a challenging thing to apparate in the first place, but it was incredibly tricky from a knelt position. It was a show of skill to do so, more so to apparate in mid-air like the Order had done. Holly was skilled, but she was also in great pain, exhausted, and carrying a severely wounded passenger. Her apparition wasn't clean, but she hadn't splinched herself or Luffy, so she took it as a win.

Holly touched down across the battlefield at the farthest point she could. She was at the edge of the crescent designed marina, the only sturdy bit of land left for the ice had fully melted by that point. She was also practically alone there. No marines and no pirates in sight; it was just Holly and Luffy who wasn't even conscious anymore. He'd bled too much-

"Why didn't I learn healing spells." Holly moaned as she looked around for something to help Luffy. She wracked her brain for anything to cast, but all she could remember was that vague spell Snape had cast on Draco. It had been a chant, but she couldn't remember the words. Now her inability to do so was going to get Luffy killed- no, no! She had to figure it out. Ace was counting on her to do this. What was it- what was it- a shadow fell over Holly, and she turned, eyes going wide.

A figure had appeared behind Marineford, behind the enormous building that Whitebeard had cracked. It was tall. Taller than any giant Holly had ever seen, taller than even Hogwarts' tallest tower. A roundish man peered down at the battlefield, his hands clutching the building, and he was laughing. He was the biggest thing Holly had ever seen, beyond the castle, beyond the giants and dragons she'd faced. Beyond the tallest of skyscrapers and it was a man.

This truly was a sea of monsters.

A laugh that made her skin positively crawl echoed across the battlefield while Holly put pressure down on Luffy's wounds. Something about it made her want to run and hide. It felt like the veil had, it felt like death. Holly hunched her shoulders and tried to pull her mind from it. No, it was worse than death. She'd greeted death already, had met it like an old friend, had met its face in Roger, Rouge, Lily, James, and Sirius. This- it was worse. It was alive and cruel.

Wait- her parents- did they know a healing spell? Holly lifted her head and scanned the battlefield, but she couldn't see them. She couldn't- she shot a look down at her finger, and her expression pinched. Her ring was gone. The deathly hallow was gone; she had the wand, but the ring- "Dammit!"

What was she going to do?

* * *

Ace kicked Kizaru away with his heels. Kizaru hit a pile of rubble and vanished beneath the rocks seemingly out of the fight, or so Ace could hope. His blackened haki coated feet sent the man careening backward in a way that Ace could never manage with his flames. It gave Ace a vindicated feeling, to beat the admiral down with one arm and without his devil fruit active. This was what he'd learned from Holly's world. To fight without his flames. Now, he would have to perfect fighting with both.

"Zehahahaha-"

_No._

Ace spun on the spot as that laugh echoed in his head. He looked frantically around, hoping he'd just imagined it, but- no, there he was. That bastard figure was at the top of the scaffolding. The man stood on the spot that had almost been his grave. Ace snarled. He sounded more animal than man as he took in that figure looking down on them all.

"Teach," the word was spat with more hate then Ace could imagine was within him. Never had Ace hated someone more then he hated Marshall D. Teach. Never had Ace more wanted to launch himself at his enemy- and a firm hand gripped his arm.

"Captains orders are clear," Marco reminded him even in his eyes were filled with the same level of pure hatred that Ace's were. Even if Marco was only restraining himself because he had to keep Ace from doing what they were both so desperate to do.

"That son of a bitch-" Ace bit out. Marco's hand was the only thing keeping Ace still, the only thing keeping him from throwing himself across the gorge to punch out more of the bastard's teeth. Marco kept him from blatantly disobeying his father's last order and… as much as Ace hated to admit it, risking his life. Because Teach had defeated Ace when he hadn't been injured, starved, and exhausted. Teach had beaten Ace alone without the backup Teach now had by taking away Ace's devil-fruit. If Ace were to engage now… he'd lose.

"Those people," Marco said once Ace calmed slightly, "they're all prisoners of Impel Down."

"The worst of the worst," Ace agreed noting each one of Teach's new 'crewmates,' "he must have used Luffy and Holly's escape to break into the prison himself." It was clever as much as Ace hated to admit it, made Teach far more dangerous than he ever had been before.

Suddenly the scaffolding Teach was standing on exploded. Their father had acted, and his revenge was swift and brutal. Ace and his crew tensed as Whitebeard engaged with a roar, as Teach rushed to defend himself.

Then Ace felt himself smirk, because as strong as Teach was the man was no match at all to Edward Newgate. Even at full strength, Teach could barely handle Whitebeard's at his weakest.

But just when Whitebeard seemed to have things in hand. Just when Edward Newgate had Teach pinned the ground, Teach took the cowardly way out.

"You'd kill your own son?!"

And made Whitebeard hesitate. Not out of guilt, however, but out of pure unadulterated rage. Rage that Teach would try to name himself Whitebeard's son after he'd killed Thatch, after his actions resulted in Ace's capture. "How dare-" Whitebeard started to say, "you monster, you should have already been dead!"

"SHOOT HIM!" Teach panicked, he clawed at the ground away from Whitebeard. The man had miscalculated how close to death Whitebeard actually was, and he was paying for it.

And then the bullets went off.

Ace felt himself scream, his voice mixed with his siblings. He almost felt every bullet like a physical blow, as countless pieces of metal sank into his father's flesh. As Whitebeard's end became all but assured. And all Ace could do was scream.

"You're not one of them," Whitebeard spoke aware of death wrapping its fingers around his heart. He felt its chill sinking into his body, and stopped feeling the pain of the countless wounds across his body. His time had come. "Those who carry Roger's will, you're not one of them."

Whitebeard couldn't see what Ace could, he didn't notice James Potter landing gently at his side and casting a look back at Ace with a promise printed across his face. He couldn't see the other end of the Bay as Sirius finally caught up to Holly, who couldn't see him. Couldn't see her desperately trying to cast healing magic without words entirely. Couldn't see Sirius blinking in surprise at a line coming from Luffy's chest, which only the dead could see, grew in intensity. Sirius lifted his gaze and looked to the ocean where the line was pulling too.

"Not that I care," Whitebeard said as Ace watched a figure with light pink hair float close to his father's form. He frowned at her as she gripped tight to a den-den mushi and ensured the world watched this moment. "But whenever someone finds that treasure… the world will return to sunrise. Send someone to find it, the day will surely come…" Edward Newgate smiled, he promised to change the world once more as he yelled out the words. "ONE PIECE. IT EXISTS!"

"No!" Sengoku cried in denial as the den-den mushi recorded Whitebeard's entire speech.

Ace's brothers burst into tears; they cried out their anguish as their father's life ended. But they didn't see it. Didn't see as Whitebeard's soul slipped backward out of his body. Ace alone watched on wide eyes as a creature of black reached for Edward Newgate. As James Potter shifted forward, he placed a hand to Whitebeard's ear and spoke. He said something Ace couldn't even begin to make out with the distance between them. And the creature pulled its hands back as Whitebeard turned his attention to James, then back toward them.

Edward Newgate stared across the battlefield at his children. His searching gaze settled upon Ace. Edward Newgate nodded one firmly, he didn't need to say anything, Ace already knew because Whitebeard had already given his order. Now Ace had to ensure it was followed.

Get their family out of there.

Ace spun on the spot and yelled out: "Move!" He snatching hold of Marco's wrist and hauled his brother backward, away from the chasm, his father's body, from the Marines and the danger. "Didn't you hear me? I said, MOVE!" Ace kicked, he prodded, he all but beat his siblings onto their feet and back. He dragged Marco, the first of Whitebeard's sons, who was utterly unresponsive. As Marco stared back at the body of their father while Teach and his crew rushed it- Marco struggled against Ace's hand- he couldn't let Teach defile-

"Marco! COME ON!"

"Pops- they're- Pops!" he screamed back, struggled, clawed at the air as Ace pulled him backward.

Ace refused to look back, his father had given him an order from beyond the damned grave, and Ace was following it. He'd follow it even if he had to knock Marco out to do so.

As a result, Ace missed it as Rouge finally dropped the den-den mushi. It wasn't needed now. The truth was out there, and it wasn't going to get much better than Whitebeard's last words and what words to go out on. She was impressed despite herself. The den-den mushi fell onto an unfortunately placed Marine's head. As it struck, Rouge flew toward James and the spirit of Edward Newgate. James was rushing through an explanation of the afterlife and Newgate's choices. He talked quickly, somehow James managed to convey what they were, what they could do and why it was necessary in seconds. Crucial seconds before the reaper than had been stalking Whitebeard the entire battle got its hands into Whitebeard's soul.

It unnerved Rouge that the reaper had done that. It hadn't given a second look to the countless spirits piling up through the war, it had stuck to Whitebeard's side and only Whitebeard's. As if Death or Fate herself had ordered it. As if it knew that no matter what happened, Edward Newgate would die that day. The idea made Rouge's skin crawl because… because a similar thing had followed Holly during that last battle with Voldemort. Because it had grabbed hold of Holly the instant she passed. Had dragged away her soul before she could even realize she was dead. Because, while it vanished when Holly returned… it then started to follow Ace. Rouge had seen it in the corner of her eye, seen it stalking Ace up until the moment Lily plunged her hands into Akainu's chest.

Until that moment, Rouge had known deep down that there was still a chance Ace could die. Up until it left her son, she knew his fate was still unknown.

Little did Rouge know that was precisely why Roger warned Holly of Akainu. Because Fate had decided Akainu would kill Ace, and that was a possibility… until it wasn't.

James and Whitebeard jerked back as Teach and his crew darted forward, throwing a large sheet over Whitebeard's body. They were confused by this, the two paused in their conversation to give it Teach perplexed look. But Rouge wasn't.

"Oh no you don't!" She rushed for the cloak.

Rouge was the former Pirate queen. She had been hidden within Roger's crew for the entire journey. Disguised, she'd sailed at his side until he'd disbanded the crew to protect her and Ace both. Rouge had been there when Roger discovered the world's truth and had been at that final island. She knew what Teach was planning, and he was not succeeding… but how did he know? He shouldn't be able to.

Rouge stopped under the cloth as Whitebeard's devil-fruit power fled his body. As it surged into the apple Teach had prepared. She watched the swirls of the fruit begin to form- and then her haki coated hand snatched the damned thing from Teach's hand. "Mine!" she proclaimed with a greedy tinkling laugh.

Teach swore and snatched for it, watched the fruit he'd be gunning for yanked out of his grip by an invisible force. Teach couldn't see Rouge, and she rather preferred it that way as she ducked under the cloth and carried the fruit free. Teach was quick to pursue her and grabbed the fruit helplessly- but oh, the man was slow. He was a snail compared to Roger, and slower still due to the injuries Newgate had invoked upon his body. Rouge flew for the gorge and cackled when the man stopped dead before falling into it.

This was the afterlife. This was what she'd enjoyed as Ace grew up, but it was so much better. The play, the pranks, Rouge was a pirate at her soul, a D just like Roger and Ace, and now she was free to… mess about. But oh, it was even better now. Now she could go beyond just watching. Rouge could touch things now, she could use her haki and affect the world even beyond the grave. "Catch it if you can, Teachy," Rouge taunted.

"Rouge-" Newgate said as he realized what she was doing just before the reaper sank his hands into Newgate's soul. Whitebeard vanished, dragged to the in-between to be given his choice: a choice between onward, a ghost, or a spirit. Rouge left him to it, it was his choice after all, though she personally suspected he'd return as a spirit. She doubted he wanted to miss his children's lives, especially considering how many he had, especially considering that Newgate now knew he could affect those lives from the afterlife.

Rouge finished her trip over the gorge, kept the fruit just out of Teach's grip and chased down her son and his crew. Her energy was flagging after all the time she'd been holding the den-den mushi, she only had perhaps seconds left, so Rouge rushed for Ace. Her son was the one focused, the one acting. It surprised her slightly, she had thought Ace would be broken by his adoptive father's death, but instead, he seemed more determined than ever. It was lovely to see… Ace reminded her so much of Roger as he kicked his crew into gear.

Smiling and still laughing in joy, Rouge dropped the fruit; she sent it falling toward Ace and- he caught it. Rouge paused with a hum in surprise, then her son glanced away from the battlefield to look up at her- and their eyes locked.

No.

Her eyes widened as his did, as they looked upon each other and… he could see her- her son could see- a furious cry dragged Ace's attention away.

She and Ace both looked and realized that once again, the sea had been frozen once more. Aokiji, the admiral, was preventing their escape again. The bastard Marines weren't letting anyone escape without a fight and- "oh no!" Rouge gasped as she caught sight of the scene in the distance. Several Whitebeard allies had rushed to Holly and Luffy's aid, but they and their ships had been frozen, and now… Aokiji was advancing toward them. And no one was even remotely close to being able to help.

"Holly! Luffy!"

* * *

Holly lifted her head slowly and turned toward the steadily advancing figure. The man was tall with curled hair and that uniform on, the same as Akainu but in blue instead of red. He seemed uncaring of the Whitebeard allies trying to help her, he pulled them from play with a single dismissive wave of his hand. The man froze them solid as his attention remained exclusively on Holly.

She took a focusing breath as ice crept across the stone she was knelt on, he moved away from in like a spider web, like a spell. His body was the source of it, the reason the bay had been frozen, the reason the wave threat trapped them had existed in such a state. He was ice in the same way that Ace was fire.

On the positive, that meant this man's weaknesses were like Ace's. Heat, fire… and water.

Holly slowly pulled her hands from Luffy's chest, thankful she'd thought to tie the remains of her shirt across the injury to stem the bleeding. It left her in nothing but a bra and jeans, but she was beyond caring. Holly shifted her weight, she ensured her thigh was pressed to Luffy's body. Holly kept physical contact with him in preparation to apparate. Then, firming her grip on the elder wand, Holly brandished the wood and all but dared this man to take Luffy from her.

"Step aside," Aokiji warned, "and give me Monkey D. Luffy."

"Over my dead body," Holly said, wishing it was more of a threat; it wasn't really, she'd already been dead once in the past forty-eight hours.

Luffy gave a pained gasp; he struggled to breathe after what the other admiral had done to him. He was in pain despite his unconscious state, and he was helpless. All that stood between him and death was Holly. And damn if she wasn't going to throw everything she could to keep it from snatching hold of him. She'd lead this guy on a merry chase across the battle. She'd force him to pursue her, to acknowledge her as a threat. To deal with her before he dealt with Luffy.

"That can be arranged,"

"Don't be cliche!" Holly snapped back in her best attempt at a taunt. She tilted her chin up, shifted in preparation and ignored the throbbing, angry pain at her ankle. Walking would impossible, but she was a bloody witch; she didn't need to walk.

Aokiji's weaknesses were Ace's weaknesses. Holly repeated the thought in her head- and ice surged. It formed at his feet like a wave; it thrust at her like a weapon. Instead of trying to block that, Holly pointed her wand at the ocean. She twisted her wrist, stabbed at the water, and pulled. Lifted the wood like it weighed a ton. A bright blue spell connected with the ocean, and then a wave broke free. It wasn't like Whitebeard, it was just moving water… salt water anyway.

Aokiji twisted, his attack stopping its advance toward her to block the water she'd sent at him. He was honestly concerned by it, and it relieved her. Water was key. She just needed to get him wet.

Holly reached down and sank her fingers into Luffy's wrist as ice spread quickly across the ocean. The crescent part of the bay was no longer the farthest point from Marineford, and Holly took quick advantage. Aokiji would freeze more of the water to ensure she couldn't use it, so she'd make sure she was close to the sea despite him. Holly apparated once more and landed on the ice a distance away. Instantly she looked for Aokiji who was already sprinting across the ice toward her-

He was fast.

Something clawed at her leg, and she looked down- ice, her leg was freezing… she'd made a mistake. She'd gone to his element. He could control it even this far away- "Bugger!" she apparated again, shattering the ice that had been trying to claw up her and Luffy's bodies. She landed to the left, and Aokiji instantly changed direction- this time, his attack was faster still. The ice crawled up her body like flames licking at her- how was he tracking her so quickly-

The crack of apparition.

Damn!

Holly glanced around frantically. But everything around her was nearby and… she couldn't even return to the bay itself. Aokiji had already frozen it solid, and the other admiral, the one Ace had been fighting, was rushing toward her. She was surrounded. There was nowhere for Holly to go, nowhere but to the central part of Marineford with an unconscious and brutally wounded Luffy. Could she apparate to the top of the castle itself? Not, not with that giant there. He'd probably destroy the castle with her on it.

Ice crept faster, and Holly frantically apparated again and instantly, the ice she was knelt on surged. It froze her uninjured leg and half of Luffy's body solid. She couldn't walk now, couldn't in the first place but now- both her legs-

"Die!"

"Protego!" Aokiji's fist struck her shield a breath away from her face. He pulled back slightly, unfazed… and his arm blackened- and the sound of something breaching through water echoed behind her. Holly looked slowly behind her- looked at the edge of the frozen ocean- there was a bright yellow ship there and a man on its deck looking her way.

"Bring Straw-hat-ya over here!" The man stared at Holly, who had already decided to do precisely that. A ship was better than the damned ice rushing up her and Luffy's body- "I'm going to make sure he escapes, entrust him to me! I'm a doctor!" Personally, Holly didn't think he needed to say all that, he wasn't a Marine, and she would take that as better than her current options. She grabbed Luffy firmly with her free hand as ice surged up her body- she couldn't feel her arm anymore, couldn't feel her wand-

"Room!"

"HOLLY!"

She couldn't move her body- but it still existed. Holly knew her hand was on Luffy, and she pulled at her magic. No one ever said she needed a wand to apparate. So, thinking on her three A's of apparition, Holly felt the world twist- and stop. Nothing seemed to change, she couldn't feel the ground below her anymore, so Holly wasn't sure if she succeeded. Or she wouldn't have been, if the newcomers' ship hadn't been stupidly bright yellow.

She'd made it.

"Get… them-… apart!…" Everything was so far away.

Merlin, she was so tired. Holly had been fighting for so long, struggling for what seemed like her whole life. She just wanted to rest- cracking sounds echoed from her right, and a figure in the corner of her eye carried Luffy away… was that a polar bear?

Ace's world was so weird.

The man who'd saved her knelt at her side with an eerie light in his eyes. Holly nearly sighed at it, another doctor type, this guy was probably like Pomfrey then. Scary about his patients, which Holly had unwittingly placed herself as. He reached forward, his fingers prodding - light or otherwise, Holly couldn't feel it - at her frozen body. A sadistic expression expanded, and she really did sigh then- only for light to grow from nearby, familiar, it was the other admiral, the yellow one. Holly lifted her head feeling her body crack and creek. He was aiming at them again, trying to kill Luffy again.

"Straw hat Luffy. Surgeon of Death Law. Teleporter Holly…" the man seemed to sing the words at them, and Holly's neck snapped in several spots as she lifted it. She probably shouldn't move, but- she was so bloody tired of this nonsense. These people were so determined to kill a teenager, to kill Luffy even though all he'd done was try to save his brother. It was despicable.

Holly lifted her working arm, she didn't even have her wand in it. Her wand was still frozen to her body, she had no access to it. Despite that, Holly lifted her hand toward the yellow bastard and allowed her expression to twist.

"Can you fuck off?!" she screeched and sent a full barrage of spells at him. She wasn't even sure what she'd cast if Holly were honest; she was acting purely on instinct now… unfortunately, Kizaru dodged just as Akainu had. Still, she was so… she was so… angry. She just wanted to leave this cursed place with Ace, she just wanted to be safe and finally rest. If only these Marines would just stop!

Holly's spells cut off. Beside her, the doctor straightened and lifted his hand… he was frightened Holly realized. Was the admiral really that scary? Holly had faced three throughout the battle, and they weren't honestly that bad. Then again, she might just be out of it now. She should probably be scared, Kizaru had dodged every one of her attacks after all. Holly turned her face upward.

Ah, she knew why she wasn't frightened.

Ace's foot smashed into Kizaru's neck, sending him careening toward the ocean before. Body twisted in thin air, and Ace yelled as he landed on the deck with her: "What she said!"

It had been Ace that yelled her name before she apparated. He'd already been sprinting across the bay by the time the ship revealed itself.

Ensuring Kizaru wasn't going to quickly recover from that blow, Ace offered a mocking bow toward the Marines. He flicked an imaginary hat toward the Marines with his middle finger. "Oh, and thanks for the platform Aokiji, I found it quite useful." As he spoke, Ace thrust out his hand and sent an enormous fireball at the ice creeping toward them. And now that he'd brought her attention to it, Holly realized Aojiki had been pursuing her with his ice even as she landed on the yellow ship. Kizaru was just faster and had reached her first. Aokiji was stalled by Ace's flames, the man's lazy expression looking more and more cross. Maybe he'd found out Lily's had killed Akainu?

"We're diving!" The yellow ship's captain, Law? Yelled. "You two, hospital bed, now!" he added toward Holly, half-frozen and half-burnt like some tragic microwave dinner.

Holly glanced at the man, and Ace followed her gaze. They were a mess; they both knew it. The war had not been kind to their bodies, Ace and Holly were a painting of injury. Both of them were in desperate need of a doctor. Conveniently, one had arrived just when he was needed. But- Ace looked back to the battlefield as it continued to violently rage. His crew… the division commanders, were still fighting to escape. The last remaining paddle ship had been frozen solid. And despite the gorge, brutal battles were raging everywhere he could see.

He… he couldn't just leave.

"Ace go!" Marco's voice yelled out. Marco had taken to the air, he was above them all and watching Ace's hesitation. He'd transformed to catch up to Luffy and Holly before they were killed only to be knocked down by Garp. Ace though, Ace had made it. "We'll catch up! Go!"

Marco knew that Ace needed medical attention as much as anyone else. The mess that was his arm may not even be repairable, not with how badly it had been burnt. And if Ace hesitated any longer, then someone, one of the admirals probably, would actually succeed at killing him. Marco couldn't allow that to happen, the one thing they had left was Ace. He was their only victory in this battle, and he was the reason they were still struggling to survive.

For Ace, Marco and every Whitebeard pirate present would fight to the death.

Thankfully for them all, that never came to pass.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" A single pink-haired Marine screamed out, and the ship known as the Red Force finally revealed itself.

Red-hair Shanks had arrived to end the war.

The ship under his feet was sailing forward, was pulling from the battle before diving. On it's deck, Ace straightened when Shanks glanced their way; he gave Ace a firm look, and Ace exhaled. The yonko would ensure the survival of the rest of Ace's crew, he could leave. Nodding, Ace turned, swooped down grabbing Holly mostly frozen body with his uninjured arm. Ace cradled Holly close, strode past Trafalgar Law, who was watching the aftermath of the war, and carried her below deck and finally out of sight of the war. He followed the direction of the sudden appearance of the Heart pirates. He didn't trust them overly, but Ace admitted that they all needed a doctor that and…

He glanced at Sirius, the man whose name Ace knew from Holly's descriptors and tales. He was the only soul actually present and generally seemed at ease. When Ace glanced his way, while following one of the Heart pirates to a hospital room, the man gave Ace a thumbs up. "It's fine, I don't know his intentions, but he won't hurt Luffy."

Ace wanted to ask how Sirius knew, but he'd sound a bit mad talking to thin air, so he didn't. Instead, he set Holly carefully on the infirmary bed and then hopped up himself, so he was beside her. The cushion under him felt immediately weird. For… he didn't even know how long, he'd been chained up and sat awkwardly on sharp stone. It had been a painfully long time since he'd been on anything soft like this. Apparently, his perching, as a spirit, in Holly's world didn't count either.

Holly cringed as her body cracked and creaked from the ice. They'd need to thaw her before they could take care of her injures just as they'd have to do with Luffy. Holly hoped it didn't take long, the cushioning under her was all but screaming her name. While she thought this, she felt Ace sag at her side, his shoulders dropped, and his head drooped forward. Ace's hair obscured his face, but Holly didn't need to see it to know his eyes had temporarily closed in pure exhaustion.

"Here." Trafalgar Law stopped in the room briefly. They both tensed as Law tossed- what that Luffy's hat?! Toward them. Ace snatched it out of the air in panicked alarm. How had Trafalgar gotten it-

"Luffy!?" He staggered back to his feet. He didn't know how Luffy was, didn't know the extend of his injures-

"You stay here," Law pointed firmly at them, "no family allowed during surgery."

"But-" Ace protested.

"If you try to come in anyway, I may be distracted, and distraction leads to a botched surgery which will be of no fault of my own." The man's smirk made Ace's lips curl, "stay." He repeated and vanished around the corner. It was bold of him, they could have attacked his back, or perhaps he knew they wouldn't. Not when he was the only doctor around that might be able to save Luffy now. Ace- Ace was a step away from launching toward the man, ripping Luffy from his grip, and trying to get them all back to Marco. Because he'd made a mistake in trusting-

"Ace," Holly exhaled as a pair of pirates approached her already discussing what to do about their injuries. "It's the same in my world, family isn't allowed to be near… they react poorly if something goes wrong. We'll only distract him from saving Luffy."

Ace clucked his tongue and turned away hair swinging. "I know… just… not happy about it though."

"Our captain is skilled," the woman gently prodding at Holly's frozen skin said, "if anyone is to save Straw-hat Luffy… it's him."

"Ace, he'll be fine," Sirius agreed from the side, "there's no reaper here… it's not Luffy's time, not yet."

Taking Ace's grudging silence for agreement, the pair of doctors moved on to their wounds and Holly's frozen body.

"Come, we'll need to melt you before we can do anything." The pair of pirates nudged Holly off the bed and toward a small showering area. It was there probably for sanitation reasons, but Holly wasn't going to get there independently. One of her legs was frozen, and the other was a mess of burnt flesh. Thankfully Ace was more than willing the help. Anything to get his mind off his father and Luffy's uncertain fate. He set Holly down with care in the shower, and the doctors turned the water on to 'defrost her.' As they did, Ace was ushered back to the bed so the second doctor could 'gently' chip away at his burnt and charred skin.

Ace hadn't been burnt like this before. The scraping they were doing was agonizing. But it kept his mind away from his father's body left behind in Marineford. He kept his mind from a heartbroken Marco who now had to get their crew to safety while Ace sailed farther and farther from the battle. It kept his mind away from Luffy's surgery as hours passed, and Trafalgar continued to work. But it didn't keep his mind away from Holly, not when they started to scrape away at her injuries like his. She tried her best to hide how much it hurt, but as hours passed, she was unable to hold it in, and she cried out in pain.

Lips pressed together, Ace shifted to the side, he forced his doctor to follow him. Ace moved closer to Holly, he pulled her onto his lap. With care, Ace moved his uninjured arm around Holly's body and hugged her from behind, his hand settled on her stomach, and he reigned in his flames. The last thing either of them needed was for him to add more burns to her body. Finally, Ace dropped his head on top of Holly's and murmured a soft: "alright?"

Holly whimpered, "missing Madam Pomfrey so much, oh my gods-" Holly gasped with tears slipping down her face. She'd been burnt before, she'd faced a dragon after all. But magic and what the Muggles were doing were vastly different things. "Oh god, knock me out, please, please, it hurts-" her whole body flinched as they dug in, as they cut away dead skin. Ace's fingers flexed on her stomach as the same happened to him- his own doctor had started again after getting situated with the new positioning.

"Don't think it would last, otherwise I would." Ace told her honestly. There was also the fact that he didn't want to hurt her as he'd have to in order to knock her out. Not to mention, there was a selfish desire deep within him that begged her not to leave him alone. Not as his father's corpse seemed to appear every time he blinked his eyes. "I can distract you?"

"Kissing is really not going to help right now," Holly managed through gritted teeth as her eyes watered.

Ace chuckled against a particular nasty dig, "who has the dirty brain now, I just meant talking."

"Not… I don't… che!" Holly's mouth worked for a few seconds, "it hasn't really hit yet… everything that happened." So much had since she and Ace had been alone in the tent, so much had changed. "We do… probably need to talk." But she didn't want to, not yet, not now… she was so tired. Molly Weasley had once told her that she should never have meaningful conversations if she was either hungry, lonely, or sleepy. Holly was all three right then.

"Later," Ace agreed sensing the turn of her thoughts. "When your godfather isn't staring me down."

"Damned straight," Sirius called from the side.

Holly's brow arched, and she glanced at Ace's hand, the one pressed into her stomach and noted the ring there. "You took my ring." She said in mock offence.

"You were unconscious… and I'm a pirate." He was wholly unrepentant and added cheekily, "though, technically, I should be giving you a ring."

Holly made an offended noise, "First!" she nudged him with an elbow, "that is absolutely not how you propose. Secondly, you stole my ring. And thirdly… I don't have a thirdly; the first two are good enough!"

"She's right," Holly's doctor commented, "that's really not how you propose."

"Butt out," Ace stuck his tongue out at the woman, "hn, I could do big if that's what you want though."

"I never said big! But you at least need a ring that isn't mine! Merlin Ace." She couldn't believe this was what they were talking about. They weren't even technically dating for Merlin's sake. Which Sirius was already reminding Ace of, considering the random way he said, 'leave me be Black!' Holly giggled, picturing what Sirius was saying before she sagged back into Ace's chest.

She was drained, ridiculously so. She'd escaped prison, destroyed a Horcrux, fought in a war, and had nearly died six different times in the last forty-eight hours. Her magic was fine, thanks to Marco, but her body was beyond done. Holly suspected Ace was the same, especially since he'd been starved on top of all that. Though he also hadn't been frozen like she had. He also hadn't died like she had.

"I'm exhausted." She mumbled weakly and felt Ace squeezed her in a one-armed hug in comfort.

"Sleep." He'd guard her while she did, he'd keep vigil-

"You should too Ace," Sirius said, "just keep the ring on. I'll wake you when Luffy's done."

Ace eyed the man as Holly's head dropped back into his chest, and her eyes fluttered close. Her doctor was just about finished with her leg, and his arm was almost done as well. They'd be allowed to rest, and Ace honestly longed to do exactly that… but…

"Luffy will take hours," Sirius added, "Muggle surgery always does-" Or so Lily had told him. "-sleep Ace," he insisted.

Just a few minutes. Black would protect them. Just a few minutes should be fine.

"Wake me if anything happens." He demanded unaware of the two doctors giving him confused and concerned looks.

"I will." Sirius promised and backed off a bit.

Ace sifted as his doctor stepped away, the bandages were set in place, and he had been returned his arm. Ace moved slowly, turned his body with Holly's, so they were laid across the bed. The two doctors slipped out, left them be after turning off the light. Rest was required now, their bodies needed time to heal, and the two weren't going to linger if Ace wasn't going to resist. The door closed behind them, and Ace settled back.

He had Holly moved, so her leg was slightly elevated while it rested on his, she was otherwise curled into his chest. Her hands pinned between them. It left Ace with one arm under her head and the other wrapped around her small form. She was safe there, hidden by his body. But Ace, despite his exhaustion, couldn't fall asleep. His eyes remained open as he scanned the room. It… didn't feel real. Holly was protected in his grip, but he didn't yet feel safe…

"Ace." Sirius squatted in front of him. His head was see-through, and his gaze kind. He managed to pull off the parental looking far better than James and Lily. Ace suspected that was because Sirius had been actually older than him when he'd died, unlike Lily and James. "Rest. I've got you, alright? Trust me, I won't let anything happen to either of you."

Ace stared the man down. The confession was on the tip of his tongue… that he didn't feel safe, that he hadn't in a long time and- Holly burrowed deeper into his chest. Her head pressed under his chin, and she exhaled.

"Listen," Sirius insisted, "I'll count hyppogryff's if I have to, but you need to rest."

"Don't even know what that is." He grumbled.

"Or… I'll recite history of magic, I think I can pull off a Binns-"

"Can you check on Luffy?" Ace asked instead. Sirius blinked several times, then his expression grew utterly fond.

"Sure, I'll check on him. But as a deal, you have to close your eyes first."

With a noise of irritation, Ace did precisely that. His eyes closed, "it's not going to help, not until I know Luffy… is…"

"Safe?" Sirius finished in amusement as Ace drifted off in seconds. Mid-sentence even. What a stubborn kid.

Stepping back, Sirius left the two of them sleeping, they needed it, badly. And thankfully neither them so much as stirred as Sirius phased through the hospital door. As he did, he aimed for the deck, he didn't bother checking on Luffy. Sirius had already done that when the kids were distracted, and Luffy was already out of surgery. If he told Ace that the kid would just rush to his brother's side, so would Holly, in fact, which was why he'd kept his silence.

Sirius floated upward and reached the submarine's deck. The ship had surfaced, thankfully not waking Ace with the motion. Sirius landed lightly as he took in the scene. Boa Hancock had made a return, her ship was docked beside Law's and carried many of Luffy's allies. Iva and the revolutionaries were all present on deck. Jimbe had made himself comfortable on Law's ship, and Law was currently bandaging some rather nasty looking wounds on his body. From what he was listening to Hancock, had apparently sent her snake pet - eww - to follow Law's sub at the bottom of the ocean floor.

Sirius listened carefully, prepared to tell Ace and Holly what had been discussed when they woke. From the sounds of it, they would be moving to Hancock's island as a temporary safety. Once there, Ace could contact the Whitebeard's who were all safe and currently with the Yonko Shanks. After that, he could rejoin his crew if that was what he desired. Luffy meanwhile would be able to recover fully from his injures, and Holly… she could finally figure out what she wanted he supposed. Though he was also sure it would be Ace that she wanted. She just hadn't clicked fully to that yet—a byproduct of the frantic energy plaguing the pair for so long.

"Hear that?"

Sirius glanced to the side as Rouge bounced to a stop beside him. She had a bright smile on her face, she was all but glowing after the day. Sirius wasn't shocked. He was pretty damned pleased himself as well. After all, both their kids survived.

"Hear what?"

"Trafalgar isn't sure why he helped Luffy," Rouge gave a cackling laugh, "Ivankov isn't off the mark there. Trafalgar moved on instinct indeed." Rouge's gaze lingered on the line barely visible to them, the mark attaching Trafalgar Law and Monkey D. Luffy. She certainly hadn't expected that to come from the war, but she was pleased regardless.

"Lets hope Hancock doesn't realize," Sirius commented, "she'll probably try to rip him apart."

"Oh don't be negative! It'll be fine." He arched a brow, where had the pessimistic Rouge gone? This woman was entirely too bubbly now. "Oh! How are the kids? Are they okay?" she glanced around as if the three would just spawn before her.

"Fixed up and resting finally," Sirius reported. "Ace is a stubborn one, I had to trick him to even close his eyes."

"Like his father that one."

"Right," he glanced around and frowned, distantly he was starting to wonder where James and Lily were. Had Lily been able to stop fighting? Was James still at her side, or was he waiting for Newgate? Sirius didn't know, and it worried him. "Aanyway… they're fine, and Luffy will pull through." Trafalgar wasn't convinced, but Sirius was. Luffy was going to be just fine.

Rouge's eyes softened as the living group moved in tandem to set sail for Boa Hancock's island. She felt herself relax more and more as they set sail once more. Relaxed as the breeze ruffled their hair but failed to touch her own. She looked out at sea, and she felt emotions rush up.

"They made it."

Sirius didn't look her way, his eyes were on the ocean as well. He almost couldn't believe it, they'd actually done it. Holly had been saved from the Horcrux and Voldemort. Ace had survived the war where just about every enemy there had been gunning to end his life. They'd… they'd actually survived.

"They made it." He agreed.

He and Rouge exchanged a look, then they both burst into loud cheering. Rouge grabbed his hands and swung him around, they took a moment to just celebrate. To bask in the fact that their kids were resting, that they had a future together. That the war was over.

"They made it!" They both screamed to the skies.


End file.
